Chapter Text
Max slammed into George with a fervor he’d never shown before; above him, mouth lax, tongue out and drooling a steady, spitty stream onto the back of George’s neck. George held that leash tight, Max’s collar pulling something fierce, damn near akin to neck resistance training.
George’s voice was fucked out, frenzied, and rough, moreso than usual. “Yeah that’s it, Maxie, come the fuck on! Fuck me! Don’t you fucking stop you insatiable little bitch- come on!”
Max yelped, moaning openly at the feeling of George’s hole spasming around his cock. “Attafuckingboy, Max. Don’t you fucking dare get tired- Goddddamnit- that cock-” George gritted, begging without ‘please’, demanding.
Max’s lower back ached, his calves had that just before a cramp feeling. But despite that, he knew if he kept going soon enough he wouldn’t feel it anymore. Sort of like runner’s high, except for marathon sex.
George pushed his ass back to meet Max’s stuttering hips, hard. “Owner please!”
George smiled through the pleasure, groaning deep and ragged. “That’s what I like to hear, bitch. Just my little fucking pack animal. All mine.”
Neither of them had much of a grasp on what they were saying anymore, it was all so intensely instinctual.
“Don’t stop- I’m go’na cum and you’re going to keep pounding every second, do you understand?”
Max bit his lip until the spit glistening a trail down Russell’s back turned a bit pink. “That’s exactly why I’m trying to bite train you- now it’s gonna hurt to be kissed. Too bad. Naughty. Don’t fucking stop.”
Max whimpered his way through George’s orgasm more than George himself did, pounding him through every step of the aftershocks until spilling inside of him when he finally had the allowance to. George could tell he was going to cry before he even started. He let his pup empty his dick before making any further moves to comfort him, giving a satisfied huff as soon as warmth bloomed inside of him.
“Oh Max…” He praised, panting right alongside him. “Out, baby. You just lay down.”
Max did as directed, shifting to pull out before snuggling into George’s side, laying right down next to him. George halfheartedly fumbled with the collar until he’d gotten it off with the least amount of effort humanly possible, freeing Max from his constraint. He reached for their nearby towel and cleaned himself up well enough to not make the state of the bed any worse than it already was. By the time his attention made it back to Max, he was weeping in earnest. “Puppy…this keeps happening.” He began, running his fingers through his lover’s short, sex spiked hair.
“M’sorry-”
“No, no. It’s okay. All the…things I’ve researched about this say crying and big emotions are normal. I just- I can’t keep going this hard with you- as hard as you want, unless I know why.”
All the big grown-up words helped Max surface a bit more. He sniffled and wiped his own eyes. “Du’know.”
George kept a hand in his messy hair, rubbing soft circles against his scalp. “It’s fine if you don’t know right now. But ideally I would like you to know soon. It doesn’t feel right not knowing how to help.”
Max exhaled through his nose. Short. “Nap.”
George nodded curtly, kissing his temple stiffly. Dissatisfaction. How could he possibly take a crack at being reliable to Max if Max couldn’t even be a reliable source for his own feelings?
He didn’t move until Max was in a deep sleep, despite wanting to. But once he was up he hopped in a shower, sat with a snack and a glass of water, and planted himself on Max’s couch before the TV. He subscription surfed until he landed on something generically award winning from Apple, watching somehow past the television.
Notes app.
Close.
Instagram.
Close.
Google.
Half search query about emotionally frigid relationships.
Abort, abort, now. Fuck that.
Phone face down on coffee table.
George let Max snooze for a while before he heard the shower going. He didn’t even begin to try to prep himself on what to say. They weren’t really having one of their moments. But he couldn’t see Max like that. Sometimes his post-sex cries seemed cathartic, primarily when they happened while he was clearly still puppyish. But other times it felt deeper.
Max didn’t even get halfway through the threshold of the living room, not two drops of water had fallen from his wet hair; “Do you know what’s up?”
Pathetic word salad nothing question, that was. Right. Okay. Shit.
“Holy shit, put your shirt on, man, it’s fine. It’s just the endorphins, God.”
Max opted for the chair instead of the couch. And George felt that difference terribly. “But-”
“Aht!” Max sharply interrupted.
George rolled his eyes, head falling back against the cushion. “Are you seriously five years old- what?”
Classic; the beginning of a Verstappen-Russell tumultuous evening. George couldn’t think of a worse fate.
“Max- we said we’d be more open with each other and you’re doing nothing but backsliding on me.”
He really hadn’t meant to make it sound so blamey, it just had. He regretted it.
“We’re as open with each other as two people can be. We fuck. We do this. It’s been four days of you in my house. That’s pretty open.” Max shrugged, reaching over to snag George’s water from the coffee table that separated them, downing the rest all in one.
“Max.” George could only hope he didn’t look as wounded as he felt. The quick escalation was always such a massive head spinner. It made everything good look a million miles away, like nothing else existed except for the times they spent angry. And he didn’t know a lot about being in love but he knew it wasn’t meant to feel like this. If this was love. If.
“George.” Max responded, flatlining on him entirely apart from those ever so slightly cocked brows. His temper lived in his brows. He always looked emotionless apart from the eyes when things got like this.
“Do I have to beg? Do I have to actually beg you to talk to me? I am throwing myself at you in every way I know how. I’m not asking you to be something with me; some word. I’m just asking you to let me know you. I want to know you.”
Granted, knowing someone was far more intimate than calling yourself an item but it’s all George wanted. If he had that he needed nothing else.
Silence. Routine. Heavy, long silence. George didn’t want to speak first like he always seemed to. So he let Max sit in it, no matter how punishing it was toward himself in the process.
“I don’t want you to- feel this way. It’s hard to watch you sit with it. I know when it is on your mind. I’m not putting you through this on purpose. I couldn’t do that.” Max looked at the floor, face burning. He sat the glass down on the table, missing the coaster, a pet peeve of George’s most days, notably not today.
“Okay.” George whispered softly, nodding as he took it in. “I know it’s not easy. It’s hard to talk to you too it’s just that my feelings don’t usually send us down these difficult paths.”
“I think they do.” Max responded. Not defiant, not scathing; honest. “You let things bother you and I let you do it. Group effort.”
George sat with it for a moment. Pretty accurate. Max really did notice things. “Yeah- yeah, I s’pose I do. Sorry.”
“See? Not fucking easy to say.”
“No.” George agreed, shaking his head. “I don’t mean to hassle you I’m just frustrated, Max.”
“I know. I get it. I would like to tell you things it’s just easier to let the bad fizzle a bit. And then at that point what’s the fucking reason to bring it up?”
It made sense. That was George’s pitfall too, really. Feel slighted. Don’t say it. Never say it. But Max’s issue clearly wasn’t taking things too painfully personally, he was hurting.
“I know what you mean. But if you could just find a way to tell me the source- then I could figure out something to do instead of just letting you sleep it off.” I want to be useful to you.
Max moved to the couch. He wrapped an arm around George and leaned him onto his shoulder, rubbing his back. “You’ll freak out. Maybe I’ll freak out too. Probably me.”
George considered his next response. This was the closest they’d come to a breakthrough so far. He thought they’d broken through when they said they’d do this but now they were actually in the beginning stages of following through. “I want to ask you an extremely, highly specific question that’s a bit intense. But I won’t if you don’t want me to.”
Max nodded, bulldozing into it before he could stop himself. He always went so hot and cold between throwing himself into these conversations head on and icing himself out before he could even entertain opening up. “Go.”
“Have you ever been in love?”
George shifted so he could look at Max better. They faced each other on the couch. Russell was shaking, hands betraying him as he took Max’s before he could think about it. Max nodded a short, quick affirmative. “Kind of.” He tacked on.
“Elaborate.” It took every ounce of air in him to muster out.
It’s like they were on a tightwire above an abyss of jungle and cave. A promise of destruction. A promise of never coming away from this.
“You know the rumors. Old ones. Daniel. I was too immature for anything too deep, it was puppy love but it felt real to me. He was good, the first person to be good to me I think. It opened up something in me. Love before love. I think it showed me something I could feel in the future if I found the person who would last. Opened up a part of my brain I hadn’t used before.”
Neither of them knew what to say. Too unsure to be crestfallen, too poignant to back out. “It feels like what I thought I could find one day now.” Max’s voice cracked. “I want you.”
George’s eyes were wet as he stared at Max’s beet red, pre-panicked, lip quivered face. “I love you.” He confessed, tears spilling over. “I have. I have, Max. I love you and it’s killing me because I need you to know. So much of this shit could be solved so fast if I could just tell you I love you whenever it struck me or whenever you looked like you needed to hear it and it makes me so angry at you that you won’t let me.”
Max slumped forward, forehead against George’s chest, body hitching. “I love you too. I want to have this with you. I miss what we haven’t been allowed- what I’ve not allowed you.”
George nodded, weeping softly into Max’s hair. “I know. I know. None of it matters if we just take what we want now, okay?” He lifted Max’s own crying face, holding him still by the jaw as he took in the sight.
“Okay.”
They melted into each other, a kiss that felt like something new entirely. There was a peace between them that neither of them had ever felt before. For the first time there wasn’t something bubbling under the surface or a snide comment from last week gone stale on the tongue; no. There was something pure, something they’d made together and would finally be allowed to nurture.