The Phenomena of Fireflies and Star... - Chapter 16: Chapter 16

October 8, 2023
With his humongous cup of coffee in one hand and a smaller cup in the other, Ames joined Max in the bedroom.
Max was already awake, hugging his curled up legs against his chest as he sat on the bed and stared outside the open window.
"It's a beautiful Sunday morning," Ames said, walking over to Max and handing him the smaller cup of coffee, which he gladly received. "I hope you had a good second round of sleep."
"I kind of did...," Max meekly replied.
The poor man had been soaked in his own sweat last night. Not to mention, way too deep in his nightmare. Waking him up had been difficult. Ames hadn't had much of a choice but to slap Max into consciousness. He hoped he hadn't hurt Max with it. Then again, he should probably be more worried about his own hand and wrist.
Max seemed to be at a shortage of words this morning.
Ames sat down on his computer chair, one leg up on the seat and against his chest. His coffee looked so thick and smelled so delicious.
"You okay?" he asked, taking a long sip. It was a pleasant zap.
'Yep,' he thought, gulping down his coffee. 'I'm awake.'
"Yeah...," Max's reply was quite dull. "God, that felt like a trip down memory lane. Not in a good way."
"You had me scared for a while there, bud. You weren't just talking in your sleep. You sounded like someone had gagged you."
"I was that bad, huh?"
"Mhmm. Woke me up. The sounds you were making. At first, they sounded like something else, so I checked to see if something was wrong."
He caught a hint of alarm, and an even fainter hint of embarrassment, in Max's face.
"Something else...," Max echoed, restraining his grin.
"Hey," Ames said defensively. "You were loud, and we have neighbors."
'Ew, Max,' Ames thought, frowning. 'I wasn't perving on you!'
"You got things to do today?" Max asked, glancing out the window again. "I kind of need to let off steam. Get some fresh air."
"We can go out, if you want," Ames offered, putting his cup on the desk behind him. Max seemed really troubled, and Ames didn't really have anything to be busy with. He could get down with anything. Besides, Sunday was always his leisure and fun day. "I'd like to have some fresh air, too."
Max then looked at him as if realizing something.
"Fresh air, huh?" Max asked, a hint of mischief on his face.
"Okay," Ames replied, catching a glimpse of Max's subtle expression. "Why do I kind of regret saying that now?"
"I'll take you somewhere," Max went on, a suspicious enthusiasm in his voice. "Show you something. Give you some fresh air."
"Right," Ames replied unsurely. "Huh. Why the look on your face?"
"What? It's just fresh air and me taking you somewhere."
"Huh. The last time I talked about fireflies, you gave me holograms. Now, I'm talking about fresh air, and..."
It dawned on Ames eventually, and he instinctively held out a finger toward Max's direction.
"No," he said firmly.
"What, no?" Max asked, pretentiously squinting at him.
"We're not flying. I know what you're thinking."
"You're not a telepath, and you don't know what I'm thinking."
"Sure, but I know that look on your face. That comes up when you're thinking of messing around again."
"Messing around? I don't bully you."
"Yes, you do."
"No, I don't."
"What's with the look on your face?" Ames demanded, pointing with his hand again.
"Nothing!" Max insisted, taking a sip of his coffee. It was an intentionally loud sip. "Just thinking of giving you fresh air."
"I hate you so much, Max," Ames said, arms crossed before him. They stood side-by-side by the open doorway. "I really, really hate you right now."
"It's going to be fun!" Max insisted. "I won't let anything bad happen to you."
"Right...," Ames replied. "That doesn't make it any less scary. Anything can happen to me, whether you have me or not."
"When have I ever let anything bad happen to you?" Max asked.
To be fair, Max had been so dependable. Ames knew that the man meant well. He was just really terrified by the idea of being up in the air.
"Let me guess," Ames said. "You're going to make us invisible, yes?"
"Of course," Max replied. "We won't be found. You don't have to worry about anything."
Ames could only shake his head at how Max always had a way of getting his way whenever he wanted to do something.
Ames didn't know why he'd gotten so comfortable with letting the man have his way, too. Ames knew that he could easily refuse and make it stick. Yet, here he was.
"You can just keep your eyes closed until you're comfortable. I'll keep you safe, I promise."
With a heavy sigh and a solid glare at Max, Ames nodded to him. It was a very slight, nearly indiscernible nod, but it was a nod, nonetheless.
"You won't regret it," Max said, making a pledging gesture with his hand. "I swear."
"If I'm going to plummet to a dishonorable end," Ames said, backing away from the door slowly. "I'm not going to wear bed wear. Let's get dressed."
Ames had on a gray cardigan over a gray tank top, which he matched with slim fit, navy cargo pants. He sat on the first step of the porch, lacing up his black leather boots.
He could definitely handle this. He'd been on many carnival rides, and he trusted a good and well-fastened support system. Then again, his path in the air in a ride would be set to precision and measurable.
Flying with a superhuman would definitely be a different story. He wouldn't be able to predict where he was going. He'd be at Max's mercy the whole way.
'The last time I was up in the air, I was close to going splat!' he recalled. The thought made him shudder.
He looked back into the house, having heard Max coming up from behind him. The man had put on a neat white tank top that peeked from under a red flannel shirt. He wore his usual faded blue jeans, which had always looked good on him for some reason, and had on his pair of black sneakers.
"You ready?" Max asked, closing and locking the front door behind him. He then fastened the house key by its ring on his belt loop.
"Not something you normally ask someone who was launched by Malign way up in the air two weeks ago," Ames replied, standing up. "But I guess I am."
He then followed Max to the center of the garage. They were so lucky that the walls covering the lot were as tall as the gates that opened into it. There were also, conveniently, no tall houses in the distance that could expose them.
Ames positioned himself in front of Max.
"Do I hold your hands or...," Ames asked, biting his lower lip to try and neutralize his look of regret. "Do I piggyback?"
"First," Max said, grabbing Ames by the waist and pulling him close. Ames took in a breath in his surprise as his body pressed against Max's. Also, Max's strength was definitely manifesting now. "You relax."
Ames allowed Max to secure him by the waist with a strong arm, which now felt like an armor of strong metallic fibers around his midsection.
"Put your arm around my shoulder, just in case," Max instructed. "Both arms, if you want."
Ames could feel himself shaking a bit as he proceeded to wrap his arms around Max. It was a bit weird. He'd never been this up close and physically connected with Max.
'Is he wearing a fragrance?' Ames wondered, detecting a whiff of warm orange and a bit of vanilla. It was emanating from Max's neck, at which Ames found himself staring. The muscle fibers and nerves that faintly appeared on Max's smooth-looking neck made it somewhat attractive.
Realizing how inappropriately he was acting, Ames redirected his eyes to the gate.
"Let me show you something," Max said, turning themselves around to face the car until they could see their reflection.
'He's really taller than me,' Ames thought, trying to keep a straight face as he looked at their reflection in the car window. 'And I'm already quite tall myself. In my opinion. Eh.'
Max had to be around six-foot-two.
"Watch how we disappear," Max spoke gently. "Focus on the reflection."
Ames watched in awe as their reflection began to fade away from bottom to top.
'What the hell...,' he thought in amazement as their reflection looked as if it was a curtain being rolled up slowly, revealing the wall behind them. 'That's actually creepy.'
Ames felt odd as he watched it happen. He could still see his own body if he looked down at himself, but he was nowhere to be found in the window. It was as if he had stopped existing before his own eyes, and yet a strange calmness to it had made it both mesmerizing and disturbing to witness.
"I can't see us...," Ames said in a low voice, still getting used to the fact that he could, in fact, see Max and himself, but the world couldn't see them.
"They can't see us," Max replied, looking back at him with a proud smile.
'He's beautiful,' Ames thought, internally calling himself out right after for how automatic that felt. 'His eyes have a soft sparkle to them. And he smells so good.'
Max was looking back at him just as intently, and Ames eventually looked away again.
"Let's start slow," Max said. Ames glared at him in alarm, almost forgetting what they were actually planning to do. His glare then softened as he forced himself to trust. He had to trust. If he didn't trust Max, he'd be a liability. "If you want, you can look at your boots."
"Most people tell you not to look down," Ames pointed out, catching the nervousness in his own voice.
"Just don't scream," Max said. "We can't get caught."
"Don't make it sound awkward," Ames replied, much to Max's amusement.
"Alright. Here we go."
'What am I doing?' Ames thought as he looked down at his boots.
He then felt himself being lifted up in the air, and he watched as he rose off the cemented driveway floor, floating upward slowly. Instinctively, he tightened his embrace around Max, linking both of his hands.
He let out a short and stifled laugh as they slowly continued rising. His eyes began to wander as his vantage point continued to rise.
Soon enough, he could see the next-door neighbor's garage.
In fact, he was starting to see the rest of the street.
"Holy shit," his gasp was so sudden, it felt like it had a life of its own. "Oh my god..."
He could see his neighbors' garages, their roofs, their gardens...
He looked up, finding Max's eyes looking right at his.
And they glowed in gold.
They glowed in gold.
They looked so captivating, especially from this close a distance. Their glow had this warmth and energy to them. A bit of vibrant radiance, in a way. They seemed to be composed of not just gold but also a lot of amber and yellow shades.
"Your eyes are gold...," Ames commented, taking a breath. "They're like suns."
"Don't look down," Max said.
'What?' Ames thought, stupidly looking down.
He felt like he was going to faint. His heartbeat sprang into a marathon immediately.
"Oh shit!" he gasped, pulling his head back up and seeing the sky blue expanse around him. The ground was down below. Way down below. "Oh shit. Oh shit."
Ames shut his eyes hard.
'Okay, this is nuts!' he thought again and again, the words racing in his mind. 'If I fall...'
He was thankful that he wasn't the vomiting type.
He was so, so thankful.
"You don't have to look if you're scared!" Max shouted out. The wind was starting to pick up. They were still ascending. Much faster this time. Much faster. Ames could feel it with every inch of his being, and he hated it. "I won't let you go!"
"I know! I know!" Ames shouted back. The wind was really picking up a lot more. "Max, we're so high up!"
"You might miss the view, though!"
"Fuck the view!"
"Alright! Alright!" Max shouted, a trace of laughter in his words.
"Are you laughing?!" Ames demanded, slightly offended by how Max was finding this funny.
Ames could feel their flight slowing down. They were slowing down more and more.
And then they stopped.
The wind sounded more constant, and Ames felt like he could try to open his eyes. He could try.
"I won't let you go," Max said. "You can open your eyes..."
"Okay...," Ames replied, taking a deep breath. "You got me, right?"
"Always have," Max answered. His voice sounded calm. It sounded confident. Ames was starting to consider being emotionally manipulated right now into becoming, perhaps, ten times braver than he normally was. He could do without fear.
'I trust you, Max,' he thought, still shaken. 'I trust you. I'm safe.'
'I can open my eyes...'
Ames slowly opened his eyes, blinking at the brightness that he'd been shutting off for a while now. Everywhere around him—almost everywhere—was a celeste blue expanse of the sky.
Clouds floated in the distance. They looked so calming. Dreamy, even.
"Look at me," Max said.
Ames did as he was told.
Once again, he was staring into the beauty of Max's brilliant solar eyes. They complemented Max's porcelain skin tone very beautifully, resulting in an allure that was both familiar and otherworldly.
'He's so handsome...,' Ames thought. 'His eyes, his skin, and his facial structure. Everything about his looks is beautiful.'
"You're very handsome, you know that?" Ames couldn't help but say.
"You just noticed?" Max replied, grinning mischievously.
Ames scoffed out into stupefied laughter, wanting to wipe the grin off Max's face. He almost forgot that he'd been clinging onto Max the whole time. He then realized that it had been Max doing most of the carrying all along.
"No, genius...," Ames said, his laughter calming down into a warm grin as he continued to stare at the fine structure of Max's features, which looked a lot more captivating because of the man's eyes.
Max's smile never left.
Ames almost never realized that they'd been staring at each other for a while now. The experience of gazing upon something so vividly majestic was arresting. He was close to forgetting that he wasn't on the ground.
"Hold me tight?" Ames asked politely. "I want to look down."
"Been holding," Max replied in a reassuring tone.
Taking a deep breath, Ames slowly looked down on the ground below. Way below.
A gasp of fear escaped him yet again, but he forced himself to look. He did.
They were already so high up, and they seemed to be only a few meters higher than the tallest Falco skyscraper. Looking down at the city felt like looking at a large computer chip. The houses were so small. The commercial district's tall buildings stood in the distance, windows shimmering under Sunday sunlight.
'I'm safe,' Ames chanted in his head, learning to trust in Max's strength. He had never imagined how he'd find safety at this height in somebody's arm, but here he was. He was secure. 'I'm safe.'
His eyes scanned the surroundings, basking in the colors around him. He could see the network of roads below and the green hills that surrounded the city. He could see the sea in the distance, a moving blanket of a brighter blue than the usual sunset navy that he remembered.
He was flying.
"This was what you used to see every day, huh?" Ames asked.
"Yeah...," Max replied. "Beautiful, isn't it?"
"Wonderful," Ames said, giving Max a grateful look. Max looked back at him in such a way that Ames couldn't accurately describe, but it was a pleasant and reassuring look.
For a moment there, Ames almost forgot that he was up in the air with Max.
Not Harvey.
It wasn't Max's appearance. They looked very different from each other. Although, they had some similarities, particularly in terms of height and demeanor. Fashion sense, too. It was the feeling of being grounded and capable that Max was making Ames feel that felt so oddly—and in a way, so unfairly—familiar.
"You happy?" Max asked.
"Now, I am...," Ames answered, looking around him again. "It's scary at first."
"You should've seen your face."
"I hate you."
"No, you don't."
Ames nodded in agreement. Down on the ground, everything looked exhausting and intimidating.
Up here, Ames never would've thought that he would understand how feeling very light and yet feeling very sturdy at the same time felt.
But he did.
"We can stay here for a while...," he said, nodding toward Max. "I like it here."
"Alright...," Max replied. "After that, there's something else I wanna' show you."
Unknown Forest Area near the Edge of the City
10:43 AM
Reaching the ground once more, Ames felt the crunch of fallen twigs and dried leaves under his boots. The feeling of solidity under his feet was very reassuring.
"Here we are," Max said, letting him go. For a silly moment, Ames almost tightened his hold on Max even more. They'd taken so much time up in the sky that landing felt like a new experience. He let go of Max the moment he was confident that he could stand steadily on his two legs.
"Wow," Ames said, taking a deep breath and exhaling loudly. He shot his arms out, stretching them out as he squeaked at the remnants of excitement inside of him. "That was fun, but boy, I miss walking."
Max laughed in amusement at Ames, making a gesture with both of his hands.
"Thank you...," Ames added, lowering his arms and shoving his hands into the pockets of his cardigan. "I enjoyed that."
"You're welcome," Max replied. "We're visible again, by the way."
"Oh. That's comforting."
"You looked like you needed a lot of comfort up there, tough guy."
"Ha-ha, Max," Ames said, rolling his eyes. He then gave his surroundings a sufficient scan. All around them stood tall Acacia trees. Sunlight broke through the natural green roofing in soft rays. The scenery was a great contrast to the view up above. The ground was covered in dried leaves, twigs, and rocks. It definitely was a different view, but Ames liked it just the same. He liked to hike in the woods. "Where are we, by the way?"
"We...," Max said in a bit of a sing-song voice as he looked around him. "We're in a woodsy area that I go to whenever I have free time in my schedule. I don't stay in this spot, though. I stick around somewhere else."
"Oh," Ames commented, taking in the slightly earthy aroma mixed with fresh air. "Walking distance from here?"
"Uh huh," Max replied, waving for Ames to follow him as he walked forward. "Walk with me."
They walked on. Ames stayed by Max's side as they proceeded forward, but his eyes couldn't help but bask in the meditative sight of tall trees just growing liberally in their space in the modern world. He was glad that he wore what he wore, too. Such an environment meant worms and other critters he wouldn't want even a meter close to him could make a bad cameo. That would be a terrible spoilage of the good time he was having.
'This view reminds me of Stella Peterson's The Wood Nymph,' Ames thought, recalling one of his favorite country singer's albums. 'It was quite a hit back in 2020. I risked COVID for that album.'
"You come here to think?" Ames asked.
"Yes, sir, I do," Max replied. "In HQ, you see a lot of people in uniforms and coats, and you hear a lot of beeping noises."
"That's stifling," Ames commented rather frankly. "No offense."
"None taken."
They continued in their walk, silently yet thoroughly enjoying the relaxing calm of the environment. Ames let his hand slide against the rough surface of a tree as he passed it by. It was rough, indeed, but its solidity was rewarding. A Taurus like him could definitely get used to this.
"What's your sign, Max?" Ames inquired, suddenly curious.
"I'm a Leo," Max replied. Ames found that conveniently fitting. "You?"
"I'm a Taurus," Ames shared.
"A lion and a bull in the middle of the woods," Max commented. "That's actually kinda' interesting."
After a few more minutes of just walking in the woods, Ames could finally see what appeared to be a clearing just beyond the trees.
"A clearing?" Ames wondered aloud.
"We're almost there," Max announced, grabbing Ames by the wrist and walking more excitedly toward the open space ahead. "Come on. It's pretty cool there."
The clearing was a wide, green open space walled by tall Acacia trees. It reminded Max of the clearing in the Arkanghel woods, except there wasn't any large rock. There was, however, an abandoned pyre of chopped logs that had been there for as long as Max could remember.
This place hadn't always been closed, but Max could no longer remember when it had last been open. That had to be a very long time ago. Decades.
Max sat on one of the chunky logs at the bottom of the pyre, while Ames sat on a higher spot just to his right.
"It's a peaceful place here," Ames commented. "I see why you like to be here."
"Yep...," Max replied, nodding. He flicked his hand upward, unleashing photokinetic orbs up in the air and letting them float about with his fingers. "Here, I go back to before 1942."
With the help of his other hand, he channeled his control over the orbs more acutely, pulling one of the light orbs in many places until it was the shape of an angel.
"Wow...," Ames swooned. With a soft motion of his finger, Max moved the holographic angel closer to Ames. "Max, you're amazing."
Max observed as Ames tried to touch the angel hologram, his fingers delicately phasing through it. The look of wonder in Ames's face was satisfyingly beaming to Max.
"I don't think I've ever shared enough about my history," Max said, using his fingers to channel his control and make the hologram softly flap its wings. "I came from the town of Arkanghel. Up in the mountains. Informal settlements-turned-secret town."
"Arkanghel...," Ames echoed. "Considering your powers, that's fitting..."
"I dreamed of the town last night," Max shared. With a sway of his fingers, the angel hologram disappeared. Ames's wonder turned into disappointment at the sight of the hologram breaking apart into smaller orbs. Max then controlled one of the other orbs to come forward and approach Ames. With more finger work, Max shaped the orb out into a figure of a man. "I dreamed of someone I used to love. Long, long ago."
Max observed the slight flash of surprise and realization in Ames's face as he reached out for the holographic man.
"You never did tell me your orientation before...," Ames said, looking down at Max with a faint smile. His focus eventually returned to the hologram. "I just felt around the vibes. Who is he?"
"Dicoy...," Max said. "A childhood friend. A former lover. One of the smartest people I know, but a victim of circumstance like me. I became a farmhand. He became a miner."
"Must've been different back in the day, huh?" Ames asked, putting an open palm underneath the hologram as if pretending that he was making it. "Was this before you were turned?"
"Yes, sir," Max replied. "We struggled a lot back in the day, you know, to keep our relationship secret. My parents were the only ones who were accepting of us back then. We worked out for a while, but we eventually broke off, and I had to keep moving. The rest had gotten comfortable with the social constructs and belief systems made to fence them."
"Social constructs and belief systems..."
"I'm guessing you know how differently people like us were treated before we were colonized."
"I've read about that, yes."
"Hundreds of years of being taught to live within a construct really changed our world forever."
"When the SOGIE Bill became a law last year, followed by the same-sex marriage legalization, I stopped caring about whether or not people I come out to care about who I am or who I like," Ames shared, his voice reeking of an internalized rebelliousness. It was empowering to hear. Max adjusted his sitting position to better look at Ames, who was pretend-manipulating the hologram with his hands. "Harvey's workmates, thankfully, weren't assholes. They were supportive. Allies, actually. People who didn't like the bill becoming a law, plus the idea of two men or women or non-binary folks getting married, however, found a different way to harass us. More discreet, but just as vicious."
"I'm positive that things are going to get better," Max expressed. "They have to be."
"I hope so. We're normal just like everybody else."
"Always been."
"You mentioned social constructs and belief systems," Ames recalled, looking down at him intently. "Where do the superhumans stand on them now?"
"Well," Max started, controlling the Dicoy hologram and setting it aside. He moved another orb toward Ames. He then broke the orb into smaller orbs, which he willed into a circular formation and set in a clockwise motion, like a cogwheel. "For years, people have been corralled into specific constructs and belief systems. Prior to that, the Philippines had a special place for people like us. We were well-integrated. Revered to an extent, even."
"And then we were colonized..."
"Yes," Max said. "People eventually fell into these constructs and the walls of these beliefs, undoing pre-colonial beliefs."
With another motion of his hand, he brought the Dicoy hologram forward, breaking the orbs apart with it and making them dissipate.
"That was cool...," Ames commented, enjoying the visual aid a little too much.
"When we were turned, social constructs and belief systems that had once limited us became irrelevant to us," Max then made a new light construct. This time, it was his own. Suit included. "Superhumans are a vortex of information and potential. Think of it as an empty stomach in a body skyrocketing in metabolism. We benefit from experience, from knowledge, and from life. That translates into almost all aspects. That openness helps us in putting the public first, indiscriminately, and operating in agape as much as we can."
With a synchronous movement of his hands, he created more orbs the size of coins around the Dicoy and Alpha holograms.
Ames really couldn't help himself from trying to touch the holograms, it seemed.
Max appreciated the enthusiasm.
"We are open to learn about, understand, and empathize with every religious belief, every political view, every culture, every field of study, every philosophy, every sexual orientation, every gender...," Max continued, lighting up the orbs in a variety of colors with every item in his enumeration. "We only really start drawing lines and building walls when deciding what protects and what harms. What is lawful and unlawful. Superhumans instinctively believe that people are people and that love is love. Also, I don't know if you know, but most superhumans openly identify as pansexual. Some prefer to just say that love is love or that they are who they are and aren't fond of "labels". Ultimately, we all agree that we are who we are and that love is love. Of course, who the superhumans were before they turned is a different story. They may or may not have been locked in a construct or a system. Superhumans are not bound to these limitations."
"That's why you didn't really put much thought into me almost being engaged to a man, huh?" Ames asked. "Because it's as normal for you as anything. Not that I care what people think of me, but that's an interesting way to be. Very advanced thinking."
"Yes and no," Max replied, making Ames squint at him in confusion. "Yes, it's normal for us, and we are not bound to these personal limitations, but we didn't really go forward forward."
"You mean..."
"We went back," Max clarified, making the colorful orbs break off and dissipate. "We went back to before people were limited, and then we built from there."
A smile of amazement manifested in Ames's face as he nodded in what Max felt to be full understanding.
"Superhumans aren't the sequel," Ames said.
"We're the reboot," Max added.
"I must say," Ames reached down a bit and gave Max's shoulder a solid hand. "You would've made a great teacher."
"I like to think I've always been," Max admitted, patting Ames's hand on his shoulder appreciatively. That meant a lot coming from Ames, who had probably spent the majority of his life training for pedagogy. That really meant a lot. "In my own way. Yeah, I really do."
"What a different world it would've been if we stopped putting people in fences right from the start, right?" Ames asked, an introspective look on his face. "Or if being ourselves wasn't frowned upon?"
"That's right," Max said, looking back at his own past. "If I could change the world or rewrite its reality, I'd make it a friendlier place. A better informed one. Change a lot of things, I mean. But I would never change me."
He gave Ames a determined look, and this was a gesture so satisfyingly matched.
"I proudly am that young gay man born in the 1920s who fights for the people he loves," Max declared. "The person I've always been. The person I didn't choose to be but am proud to be. Who I am. In every lifetime. In every reality. In front of every unlimited sea of possibility. Superhuman or human. Even if I had the ability to choose, I know the outcome wouldn't be any different. Because I love that I am who I am. It's a pleasant surprise. Wasn't always easy, but I'm strong because of it."
"Same here," Ames responded just as proudly, his hand politely letting go of Max's shoulder.
With a single click of his fingers, Max made all of the holograms break apart into a colorful burst of what looked like stardust, much to Ames's expressive bliss. With a few finger wiggles, Max arranged their colors meticulously to form one rainbow hologram.
"That's a high level of presentation that my students are gonna' have to beat in their next reports," Ames gleefully commented, giving Max an excited glance.
"No, I'm the top of your class now," Max jokingly protested, giggling as he raised his hand and closed it into a fist, making the hologram dissipate by breaking apart into even smaller orbs that descended like snowflakes before disappearing.
"We'll see about that!" Ames replied in kind, happily trying—and failing—to grab the orbs.
Max found himself captivated by the joy in Ames's face as the guy put out his hands, palms up, in the playful pretense of catching the holographic stardust. The way the dazzling colors reflected on Ames's eyes and his rosy, fair skin was an even more attractive sight.
Andrade Residence
12:45 PM
The flight back to the house was definitely quieter. In fact, Ames had felt very comfortable for most of the travel time. Max had made sure to hover instead of fly, however, since he wasn't confident that Ames would be comfortable with swimming through the atmosphere.
Landing softly in the garage, Max immediately lowered the invisibility field around them.
Ames was looking at him with a grateful expression, like a child watching a dinosaur for the first time. Of course, Max had never seen a dinosaur. That was something he recalled in a movie he'd watched many times before.
"Flying's actually not that bad...," Ames said in a hushed voice as they parted from each other's support. "I mean, we were hovering."
"Took a while to know how to fly," Max replied in kind, making his way toward the door and opening it with the key. He then kicked off his shoes, followed by Ames, who took a much longer time with his boots.
He let Ames go into the house first before he himself entered.
The comfort of the house felt like an invitation to jump into a siesta, but Max wasn't sleepy.
The trip had definitely been a fun experience. It had really shaken off the blues that had wormed their way into his system following that nightmare.
"I'm going to take a shower," Ames said. "You after me, yeah?"
Max, however, wasn't quite done with the outdoors yet. Although he was already feeling much better than this morning, he still wanted to know why Dicoy had appeared in his dream again after a long time. It was so unusual because he had practically already turned his back to the feelings that used to make him dream of the man back in the day. He surely wasn't feeling for Dicoy now. It had to be something else.
"I actually have somewhere to go...," he said to Ames, who turned to him curiously. "Kind of a personal matter."
"Okay," Ames replied, nodding understandingly. "I'll drive you there, and then I'll shower."
"No, I mean..."
"Oh. Private."
"Yeah. Personal personal. I'll commute. May I borrow your phone for a quick search, though?"
"Sure."
Ames unquestioningly handed his phone over. Mouthing his thanks, Max then proceeded to go to the internet to find where Dicoy had been buried. He hadn't been able to attend the man's funeral back in the day.
"You can just leave my phone on the center table," Ames said. "I'm gonna' shower now. Dinner's on me."
"I won't be long," Max promised.
"You take care, alright?" Ames said, winking at him before trotting up the stairs.
"You too, Ames," Max replied, following Ames with his eyes until the guy disappeared into his room.
'Okay,' Max thought, muttering Dicoy's full name as he typed it on the search bar.
'Why did you reappear, Dicoy?' Max wondered as the search results came out. 'Why after all this time?'
One of the search results stood out from the rest. It was an old article. A very old one.
"Elderly Man of Good Health Dies by Brain Tumor of Unknown Cause," Max read the title quietly. His eyes glided over the snippet of the article underneath the title, finding a mention of Dicoy by his real name. Max knew he had found what he was looking for.
"Benedicto Montenegro...," Max muttered, clicking onto the article. "What are you trying to say?"