Loving de-aged Daniel but perhaps it’s time for some hard truths?! Like maybe Victoria finds out that baby Daniel is with Max and they talk about how Max feels about Daniel needing him and how that’s maybe messing with Max’s head and heart a bit and maybe they get into what happened to Max and Daniel’s relationship when Daniel is big??
De Aged Daniel Part 25
Once again tapping into a ridiculously old prompt that I haven't used yet. But don't worry about that! mar 2024
Part 1 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 26 | Read on Ao3
Max opened the door, eyeing his sister on the other side in confusion. What was Victoria doing here?
The boys ran inside with a quick hi and wave, intent on finding the cats to play with.
“Did you forget we were coming?” Vic asked with a roll of her eyes and a smile. She leaned in to hug her brother.
“I didn’t–” They were interrupted by the boys loudly asking someone who they were. Max heard when Little Daniel spoke his name and knew he was pointing to himself cutely. Vic gave him a very incredulous look.
“He is still exhanged?” She asked needlessly, they both listened as the boys all started playing with each other, chasing through the living room. “Why is he still here?” She walked into the kitchen and put her bags on the countertop. Max followed her.
“He came to me, so I am of course taking care of him.” Max said defensively.
“If he’s little for so long, he should be with his mum, I think.” Vic pointed out, not unkindly.
“He came to me Vic. I can’t just ship him off– he’s expecting me to take care of him. And Grace, she is of course okay with it.”
“Yeah but… why did he come to you? Weren’t you guys broken up for so long?” she asked, it was a reasonable question and Max hated it. He hadn’t thought about the whys, not since the first week.
“What does it matter?” Max was not pouting. The look Vic gave him suggested otherwise.
“Well, for one– you forgot about this weekend. You never forget when we’re coming.”
“I had gotten sick last week and–” Max explained, he normally wouldn’t forget. Loved it when his family came to visit, but his mind had been elsewhere this week.
“When was the last time you spoke to Blue Jaye?” Vic narrowed her eyes.
“I called her for her birthday!” Max sputtered.
“That was months ago Max.”
Max didn’t like how Vic was making it seem like he was ignoring everyone. He hadn’t been.
“I’ll call her today.”
“That’s not the point, maybe.”
Max sighed into a groan and dropped his head into his palms. Mom Vic was super annoying sometimes.
Victoria took pity on him and hugged Max close, she loved her brother dearly and worried about him a lot. Especially since he and Daniel had broken up.
Max hadn’t been very open about what happened, just that it hadn’t worked out between them. Which Victoria had found odd, considering how annoying those two had been when it came to each other.
“Do you think that maybe Daniel would switch back if his soul was with his family?” she asked softly. Max made a sound of frustration.
“He came to me Vic. Of course I’m not going to ship him off to someone else because it’s hard– different. Grace says its fine, Daniel is happy.”
“This is really important to you.”
Max pressed his tongue behind his teeth. Why couldn’t Vic be happy about this for him. Couldn’t she see this was a good thing? This was his chance, his opportunity to do better than he did before.
“Daniel needs me Vic.”
She watched him for a long time and Max wondered what she saw, if she could see the horrible thing he had done.
“What really happened between you, Max?” she asked softly, as if to not spook him.
Max took a deep breath, listening out for Little Daniel’s laugh to make sure he was still ok, still having a good time.
“I didn’t see.” Max hesitated, Vic rubbed his shoulder. “I didn’t see how bad things had gotten. I didn’t pay attention. He was drowning and I didn’t see it. Of course, I was with him at home and on the plane. But I was too caught up with the title fight. He wasn’t saying anything y’know? So I of course thought everything was ok. That he was ok.”
Max took another deep breath, he’d been so stupid. So distracted.
“Then the news about his contract came out. I hadn’t known– he never told me. Of course, I don’t know how long he’d known before it came out. Too long, I think. But he never told me. And I never asked. We got into an argument– I don’t even remember what triggered it. But I got frustrated– I was angry at myself, of course. I was upset that I hadn’t known, upset that he hadn’t told me. Upset that I hadn’t noticed how sad he was always. Upset that I clearly was being a shit boyfriend. I told him- I told him that we should just break up. And he looked at me like I’d blamed Baku on him all over again and then’d just went ‘okay’.”
“Just okay?” Vic asked.
“He said of course, ‘if that’s what you want Max’. Of course it wasn’t what I wanted, but it was the only thing that made sense, I think. I had wanted him to push back, to fight me on it. And then he left.”
“Do you think you’re obsessing over taking care of him now to make up f–”
“I’m not obsessing. He, of course, came here– to me. I will take care of him until he is ready.”
“You’re not helping him by shirking your other responsibilities to everyone else in your life, y’know.” she said it plainly and Max wished she’d yelled at him instead. “You’re making the same mistake again, just over correcting in the other direction. You can’t do everything on your own and you can’t use this to go back in time and fix things. Back then you were focused on only driving and you missed Daniel. Now you’re focused on only Daniel and you’re missing everyone else.”
Max sighed, Vic was right. But he needed her to understand that he would do everything to make sure that Daniel knew how important he was.
“Maxshy all good?” Came a small voice to their left. They both looked over to see Little Daniel watching them with his fingers between his teeth in anxiety. Max gave Vic a last look to end the conversation before smiling over at Little Daniel and scooping him up into his arms.
“All good Daniel. Thank you for checking.” Max could still hear Older Daniel’s voice in his head at the familiar check in question.
Little Daniel pressed his face into Max’s cheek and nodded. Max promised himself to be everything Daniel needed.
Felix raises an eyebrow and switches to Tyrrish to talk to Xaden. "Is there a reason you didn't give me her last name?" He leads us into the building.
"Probably because he knows it will win me no favors," I admit in Tyrrish, answering for Xaden. "Violet Sorrengail, at your service."
Felix laughs a deep belly laugh, surprising me. He also switches back to the common language. "Oh, so you're who Fen talked about. This meeting is going to be fun."
