Fluffbruary 2025 Haunted By The Kiss
𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭 #𝟗: 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐀𝐝𝐚𝐦 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐱 𝐌𝐉𝐅 𝐌𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐎𝐟: 𝐒𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐲 𝐆𝐮𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐫𝐚, 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐥 𝐆𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐚, 𝐑𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐝𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐤 𝐤𝐢𝐬𝐬 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟏,𝟎𝟕𝟓
Maxwell Jacob Friedman's lips still tingled after four days and the only thought in his head was how he could get another kiss from Adam Cole.
Rationally, Max knew it shouldn't have happened in the first place. Adam was his friend, possibly his first real friend, no matter how hard Adam denied it. This thrown together tag team had unlocked something deep inside of Max, something he wasn't sure had actually existed before Adam made it bloom in the pit of his chest. Adam had even gotten him to play video games, something he never would have done before. Having that player two by his side was life changing. Having Adam Cole in his life had changed it for the better.
The kiss had been something else entirely.
It had started innocently enough; Adam had insisted that they both be able to face their fears. Max had been against the idea from the very look of the place, Kowloon. It was the sort of place where the worst dregs of society would gather, the very poors that he had been warned about since childhood and had developed a distaste for in adulthood. And still, Adam hadn't taken no for an answer. It was one of Adam's best traits, the persistence that often brought Max out of his shell.
Maybe he had exaggerated just what he had done against Big Bill, but Adam's fed-up look was too cute not to. HIs hands in his hair, his eyebrows raised wide. All of it added to the gentle nature of his new best friend. The only distraction in the moment had been the smell of the wings brought to the table, enough to clean anyone's sinuses. With the wings, a small bowl of rice had been delivered for the table, and when the two men had tried to decide how they would split it, Adam had nonchalantly offered that they could spoon.
Max had almost choked on his spit at the thought of Adam's body pressed against his from behind, just holding him as they laid in the plush hotel bed together. It should have been the first indication that, just maybe, there was something more to be said between the two.
The wings had, despite Adam's promise, been enough to make Max sweat and to make Adam pant in agony. As pained as he had looked, Adam still looked adorable to Max when he could focus on Adam and not his own pain. When the waiter had brought drinks,, Max had greedily chugged down what had been brought. He assumed it had been water, but the sweet tropical taste on his tongue spoke otherwise. Still, he had claimed that something was just off with the water. Every day since that moment, in his most private thoughts, Max wondered if anything would have changed if he had been able to notice alcohol that wasn't wine when handed it.
Instead of stopping him, the taste of pineapple and mango had pulled Max in more and more. His head was swimming, almost feeling as if he were observing his actions outside of himself. He remembered Adam egging him on to hit the double clothesline on Daniel Garcia, or was it Sammy Guevara, who for some reason was cleaning tables in the Polynesian inspired restaurant. It certainly hadn't been the same waiter who had attended them all night. They had called an Uber together after, laughing with arms around each other's shoulders as they stumbled into the hotel elevator.
"Floor?" Adam questioned, looking over his shoulder at Max. The perfectly pulled ponytail had been freed and his luscious hair flowed freely down his back and shoulders. There was a faint glow to his cheeks, ruddy red otherwise. His eyes crinkled at the corners, questioning Max on where he was staying.
"Top. Suit," Max mumbled as he leaned against the back of the elevator, arms crossed over his chest. It was warm in here, so warm. He fumbled with the bottom of his 𝙱𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚗 𝚈𝚘𝚞, 𝙱𝚊𝚢𝙱𝚊𝚢 shirt to remove it, but it was so hard in his current state.
"Lemme," Adam mumble, shuffling forward and awkwardly pawing at the bottom of the shirt as well. He helped pull it up and over Max's head, who lifted his arms with a tiny groan. He could feel every bone in his body, the gravity seeming to pull it down. Once off, Max let out a content sigh, using it to pat at his face, "Better?"
"Better," he agreed with a sniff.
The elevator lurched before lifting and Adam stumbled forward. Max caught him the best that he could, one of Adam's hands landing on his pec and the other on his bicep. Hardened brown eyes gazed down into softer blue and before Max could prepare himself, Adam had leaned upward to capture his lips. Max's eyes widened, but he didn't push Adam away, simply closing his eyes and leaning into the kiss. He could taste pineapple and cherry on those lips, Adam's tongue darting inside of his mouth. Time had stopped as Max's hands greedily threaded through Adam's hair, broken only by the soft ding of the elevator doors opening on Adam's floor.
"I…I have to go…" Adam's panting was different than it had been in the restaurant as he pulled away from Max, "Roddy's waiting."
The name was like a knife in Max's chest. 𝑹𝒐𝒅𝒅𝒚. Even now the man was a complete and utter nuisance, "Adam…please…tell him you can't…"
"His neck. He needs me," Adam murmured against Max's lips, before pulling away to leave the elevator. Max's bare back slid down the back wall of the elevator, his fingertips reaching up to touch his lips. The tingle may have been the heat of leftover wing sauce, but deep down he knew. He knew it had been from the force of Adam's kiss, the need of Adam's kiss.
There was one solid truth of that night that even now, as he sat alone in his private locker room four days later, that flashed in and out of Max's lips as often as the kiss had. Though he had told himself from the beginning that the friendship with Adam Cole was just a means to an end, it had grown into much, much more. It was hard enough to accept, seeing as every relationship he had ever been in seemed to end badly, but Maxwell knew he had fallen in love with Adam Cole.