The Phenomena of Fireflies and Star... - Chapter 12: Chapter 12

"Thank you for taking me back."
"Least I could do for setting me free."
"Took me back to a happier time. I thought that I could never go back to that, but here we are."
"I can make this happen anytime you want."
Ames glanced up, observing the firefly holograms as they flew about, casting their glow upon the entire room. He sat with Max on the floor, shoulder to shoulder, with their backs leaning against the side of the bed.
Ames couldn't even begin to explain how happy he was. It was as if he'd been taken back to his youth. It had felt like a long travel back in time, compressed in a matter of seconds. How Max had brought him back, Ames perceived to be as convenient as it was special. For Ames, it was never something that Max had really needed to do.
But here they were.
Max had done it sincerely, and he had succeeded in what he had intended to do.
Over the past two weeks, Ames had seen the humility and humanity that very much resided in Max. Ames wondered if it were the same for the other superhumans. He wasn't about to hope for it. He would let that complex aspect of "superhumanity" be as it was. As of the moment, he didn't know about them.
He, however, had known about Alpha.
And then, he'd gotten to know Gabriel.
And now, he knew Max.
He knew Max to be a good man.
"You know what's missing in this picture?" Ames asked Max.
"Proper chairs?" Max replied jokingly, grinning at his own corniness.
"Beer," Ames clarified. They didn't have any. He figured he probably should've included some bottles in his grocery list last week.
"I actually don't drink beer," Max shyly admitted. "I don't know why I don't like to, but I don't."
"That's fine, though," Ames replied. "To each his own."
Ames observed as Max gazed at the flying constructs above.
He looked very pensive. Ames wondered what could be going on in the man's head.
"Fireflies make me happy," Ames said. "What about you?"
"Well...," Max glanced at him for a bit before looking down in thought. "I loved to stargaze. Whenever I needed to take a breath or a break from everything, I'd find time to look at the stars."
Ames pictured that out to be quite therapeutic.
"Do you wanna' look at the stars?" Ames inquired, gesturing toward the photokinetic fireflies above. "I've had my share of a happy therapy. You might wanna' have yours."
Max looked at him thoughtfully, as if trying to read him.
Ames wondered if Max had noticed that habit of his. Ames appreciated it, though. Max was always an engaging conversationalist because of his attentiveness.
"I've had my pretty fireflies," Ames added. "You should have your stars, too."
This time, Max was looking at him as if asking for permission.
"Go on," Ames urged.
Max seemed to think about it for a while before he raised his hands up to the ceiling. Ames watched as the firefly holograms froze and changed colors. They began to twinkle softly.
Ames had to be honest. They looked beautiful, too. He wasn't exactly super fond of stargazing, but the light show truly was mesmerizing. It was calming.
"That's so pretty," he whispered. "I see why you like to stargaze."
And then he wondered about something.
"You ever flew to a star before?" he inquired.
"I've tried before...," Max replied with a nostalgic film in his eyes. Ames watched as Max reached upward, commanding some of the twinkling constructs to float down and gather above his palm. When they did, Max lowered his hand, keeping the delicate holograms floating above it. "I can breathe in space, but you can only risk so much, and those stars are far. A little too far for my liking."
Ames reached out to put his index finger at the center of the cluster of holograms over Max's hand.
"The irony about being able to fly sometimes is that you realize exactly how far the stars are," Max said.
That stuck onto Ames so strongly, he looked back up at Max.
"What?" Max asked, smiling meekly.
"That was deep," Ames said. "That's true, though. I guess."
"It's funny how I've resorted to making star holograms instead," Max pointed out, flicking his hand up and returning the holograms to the ceiling with the others. "It's convenient."
"But if you had all the time in the world, would you go to a star? Or a satellite? Maybe even a planet?"
"I'm not sure, Ames. But why not?"
Gladly, Ames remembered he still had a half-gallon tub of strawberry ice cream. He'd decided to retrieve the tub and a pair of spoons for Max and himself. Still sitting on the floor by the bed, they now faced each other, separated by the tub. Up above, the star holograms continued to twinkle. The bedroom had become a pocket dimension of Christmastime.
"What was that New Age thingy again?" Ames inquired. "The New Age Program, was it?"
"New Age Initiative," Max corrected. "It's a contingency plan. Been in the making for years."
"Contingency plan?"
"In the instance of one high-ranking Enforcer's death or disappearance, especially amid a huge crisis, the New Age Initiative would automatically promote all Interns into active duty."
"Interns?" Ames asked, not quite sure what he was picturing.
"The making of superhuman law enforcers has not ceased all these years," Max explained. "I would train those Interns in field combat and environmental adaptation. They're good. They're many. It's just that the primary Enforcers' training was more extensive. In my opinion, anyway."
"How come we didn't know about this until now?" Ames asked, taking a spoonful of the pink ice cream. "The New Age Initiative? I mean, we know about Enforcers in waiting. We didn't know we'd have an entire army all of a sudden."
"It was initially a covert project," Max elaborated, scraping the tub for more ice cream. "Once activated, it becomes a formal function. Public knowledge."
"You must be very important—maybe even more important than you think—to trigger it at the first sniff of your MIA," Ames commented. "They didn't hold back. I have to be honest, I kind of regretted enabling you for a while there. I felt guilty, too."
"Yeah, I realized that, too," Max replied, pausing in his scraping. "I could've waited until the Severance Seven had been dealt with. I got lucky. We all did. Now, we have the New Age Initiative, an entire legion of superheroes, and the world believes I'm dead."
"We were almost terribly unlucky there," Ames remembered, taking another spoonful. That day had been quite a traumatic day. They had all been truly fortunate. It could've been the opposite, and it could've been so much worse than how it had turned out.
"Yeah, we were," Max confirmed. "Now, I'm just trying to figure out where to start, what to do, and who to be."
"You don't have to do that alone," Ames reminded him. "I'm here if you need me."
"I'm here if you need me, too," Max replied.
Ames realized he'd never really asked how Max had managed to help. In fact, Ames hadn't asked specifically which ruckus he'd responded to.
"How did you get involved that day, by the way?" Ames asked. He proceeded to scrape for more ice cream. "Your powers are kinda' obvious. I mean, I know you can turn invisible, but that can still backfire."
"I did go invisible," Max confirmed, leaving his spoon in the tub. He seemed to be already full. "But I'm also an empath."
"Empath? Empathy? You can feel other people's emotions?"
"Feel them, isolate them, even control them later on. It's pretty complex."
"Control them? Like, how?"
"Like, I can magnify them, neutralize them, trigger them, even use my own emotions and plant them on my targets. Et cetera."
"Hold up," Ames held up a hand, a bell ringing at the back of his mind. "Was that why you were holding my hand? Why you were in bed with me?"
Ames tried to contain his reaction at the sight of a blush forming on Max's face. That had definitely gotten Max. His panic was comical, at the least.
"That threw me off," Max admitted, breaking into awkward laughter. Ames covered his grin with his free hand.
"What's with the reaction? It's a "yes or no" question."
"You don't just ask people like that."
"But really, why?" Ames insisted, pointing his spoon at Max. "Why?"
"I was trying to placate you," Max said, gesturing with his hands. "You were suffering. I didn't know how to deal with it on the get-go."
"Was I that bad?"
"Yes, you were. I'm no telepath. I can't shut it off. You know, whatever he planted in your brain. I just had to feel you out."
"Oh, you were definitely feeling me out," Ames teased, snorting at himself. "Oh my god."
"No, I mean I was empathizing," Max said defensively. "I had to find an emotion strong enough to override your thoughts. You know, when people get emotional, they don't think straight? That's what I did..."
"Sure, sure," Ames went on, biting his lower lip to stop himself from playing around too much. Max had gotten so embarrassed about it that his face had turned red.
"I took a positive emotion from you and magnified it so you could fight back," Max said, gesturing with his hands as if making a speech. He still looked awkward. "I didn't disrespect you. I didn't harass you or..."
"Hey," Ames said, tapping Max's knee reassuringly. "I know. I know."
Max stared at him with a heavy sigh, and Ames figured that the man was probably getting fed up with his jokes.
"I'm sorry for teasing you," Ames said more seriously. "I know."
"Someday, I'm gonna' tease you so hard, you'll cry," Max replied, squinting at him.
"Thank you, by the way."
"You're welcome. And you don't need to worry about me controlling or manipulating your emotions without your consent. I really, really do respect you."
"Alright, Mister Good Guy. I trust you."
"Although...," Max was trying to say, frowning in hesitation.
"What is it?" Ames urged, noticing how serious Max had gotten all of a sudden.
"This is kinda' personal," Max prefaced. "So you may choose not to answer it."
"Shoot your shot," Ames insisted.
"Okay then," Max hesitated. It seemed to be really serious, and Ames was starting to reconsider his confidence and openness for what was coming. "I've had these pulsations from you a couple of times. I sensed anger. I also sensed discomfort. There was rage. And they were directed at superhumans..."
'Oh, that,' Ames thought, taking a deep breath as he tried to process how he was going to explain himself. Max had been incredibly good-natured, and Ames struggled with how he was going to express his answer in a way that wouldn't feel personal to Max's reception.
"Malign...," Ames started, trying his best to be eloquent. He knew he could handle it. He had to be able to. He'd given Harvey his word, and he would stick by it. Harvey deserved peace, and Ames knew that attaching pain to every mention of his name or his fate wouldn't give him peace. "Malign killed my ex-boyfriend. Harvey."
The surprise that spread on Max's face looked like a gradual burn. Ames hadn't told Max about this.
"Jesus," Max invoked in his shock, his hand creeping up to cover his mouth.
"I don't know why," Ames added, trying his best not to imagine Harvey. He didn't want to. He was actually already doing quite well in not picturing Harvey's face after the cemetery. "I don't know why. But Malign took me down and killed the love of my life with a single touch. He wouldn't let me close my eyes."
'Don't you dare imagine him,' he thought to himself. 'Don't. Or you'll never set him free.'
Max just sat there, a hand on his mouth, and his eyes wide in disbelief.
"Malign killed my Harvey on the night he said he was going to propose to me," Ames felt the slight mental strain his restraints were giving him. "Harvey was a good man. He was the strongest, kindest man I'd ever known, and Malign fried his brain with a single touch."
"I'm so sorry...," Max whispered, staring on with a horrified look on his face. "I'm so sorry, Ames."
"It wasn't just a slap to my face or Harvey's face, what Malign did," Ames continued, shaking his head at the bitterness of the memory. "It was as if we'd had our legs cut off and were made to crawl as we bled out. The love of my life, a man of honor, was put down in a dishonorable death by a monster who could do anything. And there I was. And here we are."
"I get it now...," Max said, clearing his throat.
"I wanted to kill Malign," Ames admitted. "I knew I couldn't. I didn't think anybody could. But I did hand Malign his ass before he handed me mine. I hope he remembers that."
The silence that followed had a weight to it that Ames knew both he and Max felt.
"I wasn't a good person until Harvey helped me out of...," Ames said, no longer wanting to dwell on the painful memories. "Me."
"The rage is still there, isn't it?" Max inquired. "I can still feel it. I get it."
"Yeah," Ames replied, putting a hand on his chest. "It's still here. I fight back. I try to make it go away. I want my Harvey to be at peace, and he's not getting it if I'm still angry. So I fight back."
Max continued to stare at him with concern for a while after that.
"You know you won't have to deal with that alone, right?" Max asked softly.
"I know...," Ames said, managing a smile on his face. It wasn't exactly happiness. He figured it could be resilience.
"Okay."
"Don't worry about me, Max. I'm a lot stronger than you think I am."
"I know."
Max stacked up the pillows on the sofa. The sofa was wide enough to allow him to sleep on it comfortably. His cozy blue blanket sat folded on the center table. He finally understood where Ames was coming from. For some time now, Max had been tiptoeing around Ames's pulsations. It was enlightening to finally know what had planted those seeds in Ames's heart. Max hoped that his light show had helped lift Ames's spirits somehow. He believed it had. He'd never seen Ames so loose before.
They'd gotten pretty close in a span of two weeks. Max was also glad that Ames had allowed him to see that level of comfortability to be truly happy. That meant Ames trusted him. Max knew in himself that he would never abuse that trust.
It felt like a new experience, establishing an intimate friendship with a human after all these years, and while he was aware of the pain and the risk of being collateral damage or an intended victim because of the presence of superhumans, he'd never had to hear about it in such a personal and unchained way. Ames's pain had felt deep and heavy, but this time, Max could also feel the strength that had been keeping the young professor resilient. He hoped to see and feel more of that.
Picking up his blanket to unfold it, he heard the bedroom door open. He looked back up at it, finding Ames leaning over the railing of the mezzanine and looking down at him.
"Hey," Max said. "You good?"
"You know you can sleep on an extra cushion here, right?" Ames asked, gesturing into the bedroom with his head. "Or I can take on the sofa tonight and you take on the bed? I dunno' why you like to sleep there."
"This is your house," Max reminded him. "I'm just cohabitating."
Ames's eyes widened in shock before he burst into laughter.
Max didn't know why, but Ames surely felt like he was losing it.
"What?" Max demanded.
"We are not cohabitating," Ames said. "Do you even know what "cohabitating" means?"
"Yeah, it means "living together"," Max elaborated. He was starting to doubt whether he'd gotten the definition right. "Right?"
"Yes and no."
"What do you mean, "yes and no"?"
"Yes, we are living together, Max."
"Yeah? Yeah. What's the twist? Don't torture me."
"But we don't have a sexual relationship," Ames finally dropped, lips pursed in a futile attempt to contain his laughter.
Max's jaw slacked for a bit, and he could feel a warm fuzz in his cheeks.
'Dammit,' he thought, knowing fully well he'd blushed.
"Is that what that means?" he demanded, lightly slapping his cheeks with his free hand. "You're not kidding?"
"No, sir," Ames replied, shaking his head exaggeratedly.
"Well then, I'm..."
"Oh? Yeah, what?"
"I'm okay with sleeping down here for tonight," Max finally managed. That had truly been awkward, but at least that was now out of the way. He'd surely have to check that word out again some other time. "I'm totally cool with sleeping down here."
"Okay, but can I ask for one favor, though?" Ames asked politely.
"Sure," Max urged.
"Can you, um, give me a few firefly thingies?" Ames proceeded. "To, eh, help me sleep?"
Max had already turned off the light show from earlier, but a few new light constructs for Ames shouldn't be a problem.
"Please?" Ames added, a shy smile on his face.
"Alright," Max flicked out his hand, sending a light orb the size of a ping-pong ball flying up, just past Ames, and right into the bedroom where the bed should be. Ames didn't even flinch this time. He merely smiled at Max. "You're getting the hang of it, huh?"
"Yeah," Ames admitted.
With an extra nudge, Max turned the ping pong ball of light into a small sparkle of firefly constructs. He could see some of the constructs flying inside the room behind Ames.
"I could definitely get used to this," Ames commented, glancing at the lights in the bedroom. "Good night, Max."
"At your service," Max replied, giving Ames a friendly wink. "Good night, Ames."
With a tap on the railing, Ames disappeared into his bedroom, closing the door behind him gently.
Ames rolled over onto his bed, groaning at the relief of finally resting his back. The night had turned out to be a lot better than he had thought it would. He really appreciated what Max had done for him. The man really hadn't needed to do all that, but the gesture had been effective.
The warm light constructs that flew above Ames like fireflies dazzled him. The room's light was off, but the constructs did the work. Their illuminations danced like candlelight. They looked beautiful. Ames was truly thankful.
Despite the jog down sad memories lane, he was still able to keep his strength to him. He was proud of that. He really wanted to heal, and he wanted Harvey's memories to be at peace.
"Cohabitating," Ames giggled as he echoed Max's rather comical word choice.
Ames's eyes followed the light constructs as they flew about. They were so soothing to look at. The only things missing were Tyler's voice, a guitar strumming, and a big cup of coffee.
He was getting really sleepy, though. The comfort of the bed was lulling. He definitely should call it a night.
"Good night," he muttered, lifting his hand up to reach the firefly holograms one last time before he drifted off to a good night's sleep.
Max couldn't sleep. He'd been lying down for a good few minutes now, just trying to shut down.
He couldn't for some reason that had yet to enlighten him.
The lights were off and the electric fan was hitting him with his preferred speed.
He just couldn't sleep.
'I'm bored,' he thought, not quite sure whether to pursue sleeping or to try tiring himself out. 'Ames is already asleep, and now I have nobody to talk to.'
The street outside was also silent. Most of the residents of the subdivision were busy people. Very rarely could Max hear festive noises like karaoke belters and alcohol bottles being toasted.
As he could see through the open window, however, the night sky seemed to be starry.
'Well,' he thought, sighing as he sat up.
He quietly made his way to the front door and opened it ever so slowly. It tended to creak quite a bit. He then walked out to the small, cemented porch area, feeling the night's comforting chill. The breeze was cool and consistent, and it was actually more comforting than the fan.
The sky above was a black sea of gray clouds.
And there were stars out.
There were many stars. They twinkled delicately like tiny snow fractals. Max could recognize a few constellations.
He took a deep breath of cool air, letting it out quietly.
"This is nice...," he said to himself, sitting down on the top porch step. Hugging his legs close to his chest, his eyes scanned the expanse of celestial bodies above him. He knew what he had said about them, and about how actually flying could make one realize exactly how far the stars were, but he also knew that if he had all the time in the world, he would definitely go to one.
Despite how things had turned out for him, and how the world had been convinced that he was a gone man, he still couldn't help but wonder how long he could keep this up.
'Can I even really have all the time in the world?' he thought to himself. 'I can try, right?'