Maxley Mafia AU (yes there will be art for this too dw)
Max
Lives just below the poverty line - with his dad getting fired and being forced to go back to college, they're struggling for money big time
Max gets a job at a large company (bradley's fathers company to be precise) and starts embezzling funds to help support his father
Its not a lot, only a few hundred here and there - enough to get them by but not too much to be caught
Little does he know that the company he works for is the literal fucking MAFIA
Bradley
Is employed at his fathers business
His father runs the most successful business in the country, and naturally with a man as powerful as his father they have *lots* of ties to *a lot* of important people (he basically runs an underground mafia to keep other competitors at bay/out of his way)
When they hire Max and Bradley finds out he's annoyed that he has to deal with him both at college and at his fathers work
He absolutely makes it his mission to annoy Max as much as possible
The company itself def know abt Max's embezzlement but its not a large amount so its not a huge concern
Regardless they set Bradley up to "take care of him" (unalive lol), seeing as they're classmates and Bradley already knows him
So with max now on his hitlist he has to get close enough to Max to take him out (on a date? with a sniper? who knows)
Bradley ends up falling in love with him instead
The plot to eliminate Max is essentially getting Bradley to lure him away and dispose of him, but he keeps fucking up - max catches him off guard by being, well- max
Slipping a drug into Max's drink while taking him out to coffee, only for him to "spill" Max's drink last second, as Max tells him about his struggles for money, how everything he does is for his father.
Hiding a knife up his sleeve as he and Max walk through a secluded area of town, preparing to plunge the blade into his back, only for Max to turn around and grin at him, so happy and content to just be there with him, with Bradley, that he fumbles. That kindness, being directed at him of all people- it’s not something he's ever had before.
Bradley feels bad for trying to kill him but tells himself it wont happen again (it does. a lot.)
Eventually the evil plots become less evil and turn into genuine requests to hang out and spend time with Max. Max is clueless to the entire thing, and just thinks Bradley's being nice, albeit a little insistent, by inviting him out so often.
They find themselves star gazing in a field, and Bradley cant help but reach out for Max's hand- he's so close, Max's body mere inches away from his own. Max glances over, his eyes reflecting the stars above and gods he may as well be the galaxy because Bradley can't stop staring.
They don't talk about what happened that night, but they both know that something changed
After that, Max starts to notice things about Bradley - the faint freckles on his face, the way his hair falls in front of his eyes when he reads, the way he tenses up at the mention of his family, how passionate he is when talking about literature and poetry, how he likes rainy weather and hates the boiling hot summers- he notices everything.
And then he notices something he shouldn't.
A paper- multiple papers in fact -fallen out of Bradley's books after they were tossed haphazardly onto a desk. papers detailing his embezzlement and notes about-
ok but bradley being intimate with someone (even only slightly intimate like kisses and cuddles) would be really cute and precious and ahh.
because he'd be nervous about doing something wrong or hurting the other person so he'd just be really gentle and like almost afraid to touch them at first, like he's scared about breaking them, even though he's probably far more fragile (in spirit if not physically, though he's sorta both)
you'd have to encourage him or he'll never get brave enough to do anything more then gentle, sweet, soft things.
ways to mess w/ takashi: grab his hands. be rough with them. mess up his clothes permanently (stains, tears, etc). call him boring.
ways to mess w/ isaac: insult dogs, insult his friends, insult him, be a general jerk, be fake. not really messing withhim, that last one, but rather it irritates him a lot. be honest with him and don't try to hide your true self for the sake of 'fitting in' or any other reason orhe'll get short with you really quickly.
ways to mess with bradley: anything. literally anything. he has a bad habit of taking things too personally. make an offhand comment, he'll be agonizing over it for hours or even days and it's really easy to upset him really quickly.
Fem bradley has hip problems as well as leg problems and the little things you see on her ankles in the drawing are sorta brace like things because her hips and ankles are what hurts the most when she walks.
she also braids flowers into her hair a lot.
and she can be a big gay she loves girls with long hair that she can braid and put flowers into as well.
you can tell someone's been hanging with her if they have flowers in their hair.
one of the biggest reasons bradley seems so sad so much, all the time, is because he has no idea how to express himself or his emotions. he's spent so long bottling everything up, so long believing that his emotions are something dirty, disgusting, or burdensome, that he has forgotten really HOW to let it go and be fully honest about himself and his feelings. in fact, he's so fixed in his ways of concealment that anything less than force to get his true feelings out of him would probably not work.
you have to... well, basically, break him.
pry him open like a clamshell or perhaps shatter him like a geode, or you'll never see the multifaceted emotions he tries so hard to hide. there's so much self-loathing and bitterness trapped up inside him and he has no idea how to get rid of it without just causing himself to hate himself more. like a bone that healed wrong you need to break him before you can set him right.
him and his emotions are really really messed up and he keeps himself so distanced from everyone because he doesn't believe he deserves to be close to anyone- like nobody actually wants him around, so why should he burden them with his presence?
he needs someone to smack him the face and basically yell at him how much they actually want him around, grab him by the collar, shake him until he spills the beans, until he lets all his real feelings show.
or he'll spend so much time and effort pushing everything and everyone away that he'll continue slowly killing himself inside until he'd be too emotionally fucked over inside for even extreme measures to fix...
