Chapter Text
Long before the freelance police, there was Sam and Max. One entity in the 4 million hazy white eyes of the city, and side by side all the way to Straight and Narrow. When they were kids, an unending tangle lived in Max’s stomach, and tied up his heart. It made him feel wonderful, horrible, full of life, and incredibly sick. He wanted words so badly then, and with the birth of a bouncing baby arcade game, they came all at once.
“Do you like it?” Sam had asked, looking up at him like he was far more than worthwhile.
Sam always treated him like that, and a part of Max wanted to punch the daylights out of the puppy like anyone else that made him feel strange. As if maybe the rabbit could drag the ring of fire out of his own little insides kicking and screaming. Instead he found his words in the knick of time, and they rose from his heart to his head like the smoke after an explosion.
“You.”
“I like You.”
***
“It was Scarlet in the office with the candle stick!”
“I already crossed Scarlet out for you bonehead.”
Sam and max sat at the kitchen table nearing the end of Clue, launching the three day weekend off with as always, a noir-ish flare. Well, Sam at least. Max laid across the table on his stomach, kicking his legs happily and chewing the weapon pieces in the pool. The dog noticed him practically eating the little plastic gun, his ginormous teeth somehow able to delicately maw at it like primitive surgical tools.
The sight was awful cute and he couldn’t help but smile, not even registering or caring that Max was technically breaking the game. Sam smirked in the way that’s become trademark of him. It was glaringly affectionate so he did it rarely and carefully. Although for the most part he didn’t have much choice in what his face decided to do. His expressions often seemed to fly away from him, and it frustrated the poor pup that they were forever a perfect blueprint to his thoughts. It felt invasive, scary. Like anyone anywhere could stare deep into his insides as much as they pleased.
The dog decided to rest his head on one hand instead of two while making such an expression. This was a good call. For some reason resting one’s head on both hands felt dauntingly saccharine, at home in the pages of an Archie Bunker comic. Two hands and Max might go and bite him next…
“Not that you’d mind.” He thought involuntary. His smile immediately fell and he jerked his head subtly.
“Geez Sam, get your mind out of the gutter!”
“Thank you Samuel.” said Granny Ruth, smiling contently before checking something off her paper. “Aw rats…” Sam put his head down on the table, the lagomorph giggling at his blunder. He loved his grandma, but if competitive spirit could kill a man they’d all be mucilage by now.
The young dog didn’t have much time to ponder this though, because Max’s laughter ended suddenly in an explosive cough. Granny Ruth dropped her tiny pencil in surprise, and Sam immediately tamped his raised ears back down with his hands, cringing against the noise. Max scrambled weakly to his knees to get pressure off of his middle. He finally released one good cough, then twisted in place with his head buried and whined to combat the gross feeling of mucas in his mouth. In the process he felt his vision momentarily bombarded with bursts of color. He felt like a croup baby who just swallowed magic mushrooms.
“Uh, here’s your glasses little buddy.” Sam said, placing the pink heart shaped pair in a reachable place next to him. Max didn’t open his eyes till he had them on again. The two had found them while digging around in a pet co dumpster for one of their “cases”.
***
The traffic roared continuously, one reason they really shouldn’t have done this when rush hour was at an all time high. The second being the large angry man that mistook them for disadvantaged youths and chased them away with an umbrella.
“Hey Sam!” Max had shouted loudly, popping out of the garbage and busting through a flimsy bird cage in the process. “Look at this!” Max signed, jabbing his two fingers at the accessory and presenting it proudly. Sam tilted his head confused, but not from lack of understanding. It had been a relief when his best friend agreed to take asl with him instead of the usual French. Everyone knew Madam Lambert was the easiest grader in the entire school. Sam prepared an entire case for it, complete with visual aid, but it ended up being a total waste. He remembered feeling butterflies when the rabbit said yes so quickly, nearly racing the rest of the way home to shake them away in peace.
The puzzled dog slowly lifted a hand to his chest. “Cool…?” He signed hesitantly. Max rolled his eyes and leapt out of the dumpster to enlighten his friend on this amazing discovery. “Hey-“ Sam startled when the glasses were shoved unceremoniously onto his face. “Colors all the same” signed the rabbit. Sam saw the pulpy streets momentarily through what he’s now come to think of as Max’s eyes before the rabbit in question grabbed them back, hungry for the new and calmer world he found. He smiled contently like he’d just tucked a long lost stuffed animal back into bed. Sam rarely got to see him genuinely smile, and kept a mental log of every time it happened for… reasons.
“God you’re cute”
“Hey that is cool” he spoke softly, more just for himself, while his little buddy slowly spun in place and stared up at the skyline.
***
Max opened his eyes to see his favorite dog and favorite scary grandma staring at him with concern. His chest had been feeling sticky for a while now, but he had a knack for either not noticing that sort of thing at all or losing his absolute shit over it. He cleared his throat in the awkward silence, half expecting it to taste of tar bubbles and syrup.
“Jesus Max, did you swallow the plastic?” Sam asked a little stunned. The rabbit stood up on the table and put a dramatically offended hand to his gross chest. “Why Sam, I’m hurt!” he said theatrically, “You know I can hold my plastic.”
Granny Ruth, who had been quietly observing, uncrossed her arms at last and left the room with purpose. A pointed silence fell. To the untrained eye it could look like Sam was spacing out, or maybe having a seizure depending on how mediocre you are at emergency medical training, but Max knew he was waiting for his grandma to be out of sight. The dog looked agitated, clenching and unclenching his fists. It was only when cabinet doors could be heard opening and shutting he broke the stillness in the air, signing hurriedly.
“Slow down” Max signed back, grabbing his head and sitting down. He hadn’t even noticed it was spinning till now. The sight of Sam’s hands blurring about made him want to hit something, and not in the fun way.
Sam’s fist made a circle on his chest, “sorry.”
He started again but less chaotically.
“Sick-“
“No.” Max said, cutting him off with the response, pinching the air hard with the force of it. In the process, a flash of something rare danced across the rabbit’s eyes. The dialogue inside his head seemed to shout over Sam’s much calmer one outside of it. It seized up his chest again, making the invisible blanket on his lungs even thicker with each passing thought.
“If granny asks, say no.”
“She’ll send you back to your nasty house where you belong”
“Then we can still spend the weekend together.”
“I can stay here where it’s nice if I can just not cou-“
And just like that another eruption of hacking overtook the little rabbit. It racked his body so hard he doubled over and was having a hard time standing. Sam flinched so intensely his hands flew up to block his worry stricken face, as if the sound of it was about to sock him. His little buddy’s wobbly knees could’ve equally been due to plague or panic, because he understood then there was no way he could hide the condition he was in.
Max wiped his nose, trying a little too hard not to look pitiful about it. Deep fear was starting to overtake him, a familiar feeling that came with crawling skin and an iron taste in his mouth. It reminded him of the constant smell at home, burning his nose and making him feel like the walls were touching him wherever he stood. All the same he didn’t have to display it like a grotesque show pony in front of Sam, and to prove it he hugged himself tight to quit shaking.
“Max…” Sam whispered a little loudly, his head tilting to the side and voice rife with so much care it made the rabbit’s face warm up an extra degree. “So much for hiding” he thought.
The pup smiled gently and reached out, holding Max’s arms with just enough conviction that he could stop shivering. He then drew back and said deftly “I’ll take care of you little buddy.”
It was an overtly loving gesture, but both would sooner believe the Goblin King was actually played by Tim Curry before letting their hopes get so high. Max stared blankly before blinking a couple of times and coughing on purpose this time, glad for an excuse to not let his friend get a good look at him. When the rabbit came back up, he did what he did best and bulldozed right past the awkwardness.
“Stop signing ‘little buddy’ like that!” He said, referring to how Sam always used the word for “tiny” instead of just “small”. They both got a kick out of it, but that didn’t stop Max from at least trying to look indignant. It didn’t help that his stomach always jumped into his chest for a millisecond because all together it looked suspiciously similar to the sign for “boyfriend”.
The dog raised an eyebrow slyly.
“My bad,” he said, then pinched his fingers as close as humanly possible while scrunching up his face like he just ate a lemon. Even smaller.
“Hey!” Max shouted out loud, pushing his friend’s hand down. The two went back and forth shoving each other around and laughing before the rabbit slumped to his knees coughing. Granny Ruth appeared out of nowhere brandishing an old mercury thermometer straight in the air like a pirate sword. Both boys froze in place, thinking the exact same thing without so much as a glance towards each other.
“Shit.”