Max and Cherry, before dinner
Max rubbed his chin, adopting Cherry’s faux serious tone.
“Yes,” he replied, straight faced. “The balls will be just as enjoyable for us after the others have played with them and we are filled with delicious Dick’s.” He couldn’t keep up the charade as well as Cherry and dissolved into helpless laughter. It spoke volumes of their relationship that Max could joke like this with her. A noticeable and positive side effect of their deepening relationship was his increased confidence. What couldn’t he do with Cherry at his side?
“I’m so glad you came today,” Max beamed as Cherry's own laughter started to subside. He knew it was sometimes difficult for Cherry to split her time between her old friends and her new friends and Max appreciated her effort in accompanying him to Vic’s party.
"Of course. I wouldn't miss this for the world." Unspoken was the fact that Cherry had missed more than a couple of things. "I'm glad I could come, too."
“Almost feels like old times, yeah? Only with pizza. And without the incessant dust and the s’mores clouds and dozens of drunk bikers who haven’t bathed in days. Onward and upward, am I right?”
Max was glad that they had moved on from the Dog Park. They had had some good times there, of course. No one could deny that and he was grateful for the life they lived there. But moving out and over to the other side of the law had done wonders for (most) everyone that had called it their home.
"I definitely feel like we're all way better off." Saying it felt like cheating, somehow, even though the Dog Park of old was way in Cherry's past, but it was true. And for some reason, she couldn't stop herself from continuing on. "How could we even think that was okay, the way we were living?"
Max sighed and shrugged. It was easier for him to justify his past actions and make peace with them than for Cherry it seemed. Everything he did he did for the good of his family. Was he proud of what he’d done in order to survive? Not always. Would he do it again if he had to? That was a very likely “yes” but he was inordinately glad that it didn't seem like it would come to that ever again.
She, too, knew the part Max had played in the Dog Park's ability to survive, and she didn't blame the fact that he had done it at all. Nor did she hold it against the Hellhounds she knew; how could she when she had benefited from it herself? That didn't make it easier to stomach sometimes, though.
"I'm just -- Things are so much better. We're better, too," she added lamely.