Knox (knoxinator) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2020-01-02 18:28:00 |
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Entry tags: | #january 2018, knox, knox x max, max |
Who: Knox & Max
Where: Home in the woods
When: Tuesday afternoon, 01/09
Status: complete
The only upside to Max's life at the moment was how fast he had healed. His injury had been painful and the fact that it was fully gone, barely leaving a scar, was a silver lining on a pile of shit. It was the benefit of having powerful witch siblings, or so he thought, so he didn't really question it and in not questioning it he barely thought about it anymore so he wasn't feeling particularly happy about it. There was too much else going on and his depression had gotten so much worse. There were days where he felt completely out of control, almost like a passenger in his own body, and he'd been sleeping far too much. Between bouts of anger he felt kind of hopeless and tired and today was especially bad in that regard.
He slept far too late but for the last hour or so he'd been hanging out with his dad and he felt... better. Energetic even. It was such a welcome relief to feel like he could get things done and he ended up in the kitchen, making himself pancakes for what was more of a dinner than late breakfast but it wasn't like he had a routine these days. He had rock music blaring from the small speaker on the window sill and was singing along when he spotted movement from the corner of his eye. Turning, he spotted Knox there and grinned at him. "You want some?" he asked, pointing at the pancake with the spatula in his hand. "I probably made too many."
Knox wasn’t totally oblivious to what Max was going through. It was true that he could feel the other O’Reillys more than Max, but he was still under the umbrella of Knox’s protection, so he always kept an eye on the human one too. He’d been withdrawn and sleeping a lot, sometimes irritable, generally in a bad mood. The bits of conversation between Max and Patrick he’d heard that day had been pretty lively and cheerful though, which was probably good for the both of them.
He’d followed the sound of music and the smell of food into the kitchen, and he gave Max a big grin when he spotted him and offered to share. Knox didn’t strictly need to eat, but he always enjoyed it, so he didn’t hesitate. “Fuck yeah,” he answered, moving to plop down into a seat at the table. “Always in the mood for pancakes.”
It was moments like this that made Max wish he felt this happy all the time, his mood was good enough that he could appreciate being home in his own kitchen, surrounded by people who cared for him, free to do whatever he wanted. It made the depressive episodes feel like a severe lack in gratitude but he supposed that couldn't be helped. He enjoyed that gratitude for now, flipping the pancake on the pan with an easy smile. "Help yourself, got a stack right here," he murmured. He might be back in bed sulking tomorrow so he intended to make the most of today.
Since the already-made ones weren’t claimed, Knox hopped back up from where he’d sat down and moved to grab a plate. He took most of the stack next to Max, then went back to the table. There was already butter and syrup out, and Knox went about slathering his fluffy pancakes with both of them. He glanced up at Max’s back a few times as he did so -- there still seemed to be something slightly off about him, but in a different way than before. A more positive way, but still ... off-kilter. “So how’s it going, little brother?” he asked casually enough. He left it open-ended to see where Max would take it first.
"Same shit, different day," Max replied jovially enough, a sure sign he didn't really want to talk about any of it. He poured the last of the dough on the pan before dumping the bowl in the sink, glancing over his shoulder at Knox. "It's good to be home," he admitted. "Even if this place is fucking crazy. My leg's all healed up, so thanks for that, you and Shayna Mae." He patted his leg and gave Knox a crooked grin before focusing on the pancake again. "I'd be a lot crankier if you guys hadn't fixed me right up."
For a second Knox didn’t know what he was talking about. He hadn’t done anything special to patch Max up, and he didn’t remember being present for Shayna Mae doing so. It was possible she had done it anyway, but some weird doubt tugged at the back of his mind. It would be an easy thing to clear up, at least. Knox stood up again and walked over to Max. Without even thinking about asking, he put his hand over where the monster scratch had been to feel the resonance on it. If Shayna Mae’s magic had been there, he would be able to tell. The energy that tickled his palm wasn’t hers however. It was something ... else. Something weird. Knox straightened up again and frowned vaguely. “We didn’t do that,” he told Max, studying him.
Max was about to crack some lame joke about feeling a guy up without permission but then Knox spoke those somewhat worrying words and he frowned instead. "Yeah you did," he muttered. "She gave me one of her goo jars, you weren't there for it but I know you make her magic stronger." He turned off the stove, giving Knox an almost challenging look. "It helped, made it hurt less and now it's healed. I mean... it itched like a motherfucker for a day or two but..." He shrugged one shoulder, still studying Knox's face. There was something about the look on his face that rubbed Max the wrong way, like something was wrong and if this was some magic bullshit he didn't understand he wasn't so sure he wanted to know about it.
Knox still looked doubtful. He knew that Shayna Mae made good healing salves, but he was pretty sure that the injury Max had sustained went beyond a salve. And he could feel that their matriarch hadn’t done any additional purposeful magic on Max’s leg. Which meant that either his scratch had reacted unnaturally well to the ‘goo’, or there was something else going on. He stared at Max for another half minute or so, then backed up a step. “Doesn’t feel like her magic,” he murmured. “Like there’s something ... else. Just ... tell me if you feel weird, okay?” He had several reasons to be on guard lately, and maybe he was being paranoid, but that was Knox’s job, more or less.
Time really was relative and that half a minute felt entirely too long to Max as Knox stared at him. Had he been feeling weird? Well, yeah. Or maybe not so weird considering everything that had happened. Was it weird to be tired, angry, depressed and traumatized? Max didn't think so. He busied himself by scooping up that last pancake and dumping it on the half a stack Knox had left behind, then gave Knox a sulky look. "You're kinda freaking me out," he muttered accusingly. "Something else what? Like... you think that thing infected me with something?"
Knox couldn’t say for sure, because he still didn’t know what had hurt Max in the first place. Not knowing what was going on was becoming a real trend lately, and he really didn’t like it. Knox didn’t answer right away again, though the pause was shorter this time. “I dunno,” he said finally, his tone quiet and doubtful. He wasn’t built to lie to his family. “Somethin’ just feels hinky, little bro. Just keep an eye out.” Whatever it was wasn’t killing him right that second, so Knox turned to go back to the table and dig into his pancakes. “Have you seen the new girl yet?”
Max clung to his sulk for only a few more seconds before he jumped on the chance to change the subject. There was nothing he could do about whatever Knox thought was wrong so ignoring the problem until it went away felt far more doable than talking about it. He grabbed his stack of pancakes and sauntered to the kitchen table where he flopped down on the chair nearest Knox. "Man, is she still here? Is she moving in or something?" He supposed he shouldn't really care but it irked him a little to have a stranger in the house. He didn't even think Aidan seemed particularly happy lately so it wasn't like it was a joyous thing but then he'd been too busy moping around and being out of it to pay much attention to his siblings.
So Max had seen Aya. Knox wondered if he’d even recognized there was something weird about her, or if she could hide that from non magical humans. “She’s stuck here,” he told him. Aidan might not like Knox spreading his business around or something, but in Knox’s opinion, the whole family should know everything about everything. Life just went smoother that way. “She’s not a person, she’s a bound spirit. Kind of like me, but ... not. She claims she was stuck in a statue that Aidan stole and then broke, so she got released and looks like she’s bound to him. Her name’s Aya. Don’t let her tell you she’s a familiar, because she’s not,” he added strongly, pointing his fork at Max. “And don’t fuck her. Gods know what she’s up to.”
"Oh come on," Max groaned because of course that girl was some weird spirit. Of course. So much for bitching about something mundane to take his mind off other shit. He had to laugh at Knox's request though, especially the way he pointed that fork for at him for emphasis. Max wanted to think he had some moral guide when it came to not fucking his little brother's main squeeze but he'd let himself down on several 'moral' fronts before so it wasn't something he was ready to really think about. "No worries, I won't stick my dick in some spirit you don't even know what to make of," he murmured, amused. "I like my dick, I want to keep it." He poured some syrup on his stack of pancakes, shaking his head. Yeah, he was amused but also? Not really. This sounded like a problem, one of those problems he had no way of dealing with so it was just yet another family thing he wasn't a part of. "You guys planning on doing something about that?" he asked, cocking a brow at Knox.
“That’s a good policy to have about your dick,” Knox agreed with a chuckle, cutting off more fluffy pancake to shove in his mouth. It tasted damn good, and it was nice to eat food he hadn’t been the one to cook. He knew how hot-blooded human males could be, and having a lovely woman-body in the house that didn’t belong to their sister would be a temptation all its own. Add to that the fact that Knox didn’t know Aya’s intentions -- she could decide on a whim to try and seduce every man in the house just for shits and giggles. A warning was prudent, Knox thought. “Not sure yet,” he muttered with an unhappy hum. “It’s up to Shayna Mae at the end of the day, and right now she’s taking a ‘wait and see’ approach. So ... we’re waitin’ and seein’.” Knox didn’t trust Aya one bit, but so far she hadn’t seemed dangerous, so he hadn’t taken any matters into his own hands. He would though, if it meant protecting the family. “Just watch yourself around her, and if you go through any doors that don’t go to where they should, call for me.”
Say what now Max thought, frowning at Knox at the very specific instructions. "She can do that?" That sounded like a pain in the ass and a good way to fuck with people. He didn't remember having any room-confusion lately but he hadn't exactly been very active when he was home. "How do you... know? Did she mess with you?" It was hard to believe anyone would or could mess with Knox, Max had always looked up to him - the sole reason he never really felt like the oldest kid with all the responsibility that entailed. There had always been Knox, looking out for them, playing with them, keeping them safe like a big, mystical brother.
Knox nodded that yes, she could do that. “Not me, but she had Aidan in a loop New Years Eve, and after me and Shayna Mae confronted her, she walked out the back door into some other place, I could see it,” he explained, sounding kind of put out about it. It was a dangerous power, depending on where Aya decided to send someone, and he wasn’t comfortable with her playing tricks with this house his family had lived in for generations. It didn’t feel right. It made him want to keep track of all of them even more closely now, in case she sent someone to Antarctica when they were walking into the pantry for a snack or something. “Just ... keep your eyes open. Look before you walk through anything. Just in case. I’m keeping an eye on her as much as I can, but she’s slippery, you know? And I don’t know what she is yet.”
Max thought about that one time he'd actually talked to Aya, however briefly. He hadn't been particularly nice to her, a little grumpy she was still hanging around after what he thought was just a one night stand with Aidan. He'd been tired and in pain so he'd been short with her but in hindsight he was glad it hadn't been worse. The thought that he could have annoyed her and ended up running through doors all night was chilling. Funny to think of it happening to someone else, but really not something he would have handled well personally. "Does dad know about this?" he mumbled and he doubted Patrick had been looped in yet since he hadn't said anything to Max. "Maybe he can help... when he's sober."
Knox shrugged first. There wasn’t much anymore that he could do for Patrick, except make sure the magic that kept him on the right side of healthy stayed strong. Knox had tried to intervene about his drinking a long time ago and gotten nowhere, so he’d deemed that not his responsibility. “Don’t think Shayna Mae has talked to him about the details yet, but I don’t know for sure,” he said, forking up some more pancake. It was delicious and sweet, and Knox kind of wished Max had made twice as many. He got kind of gluttonous when he was stressed. “Pretty sure he’s been warned that there’s a guest in the house, though. I haven’t seen him out of his room much. So far Shayna Mae isn’t trying to kick her out completely.”
"I can tell him," Max muttered. "We've been spending a lot of time together." Misery loved company and while Max and Patrick were both kind of miserable, hanging out seemed to weirdly cancel out some of the misery. They could just joke around and shoot the shit and not talk about the things that were giving them grief. Alcohol helped too, the others might frown on it but Max really understood why his dad kept leaning on the bottle. Sure, he didn't want him to keep doing that until his dying day but these things took time, sometimes years, evidently. "I should have made more," he muttered after taking a bite of his own juicy pancake, echoing Knox's thoughts without knowing it. It wasn't too late, he might just make a stack, leave some for his siblings and bring Patrick some too. It wasn't like he had anything else to do.
Knox had just grunted and nodded at Max volunteering to talk to Patrick. Maybe that was best. He still maintained something of a relationship with the oldest O’Reilly, but they definitely weren’t as close as they’d once been. The power and authority was shifting away from him to his daughter, and as per his nature and purpose, Knox was shifting with it. He wasn’t sure if everyone in the house knew about their developed relationship yet, but they would soon enough. He chuckled with his mouth full over the last comment, glancing pointedly down at his almost-empty plate. “If you don’t, I will,” he offered with a laugh once he’d swallowed. “These are good man, thanks.” Max had probably started cooking to feed himself, but it was still nice of him to share, and Knox always enjoyed sitting down to eat with his family. Maybe if they made more, he could take some to Shayna Mae and make her happy with pancakes too.
"Well if you'll do it then I'm not gonna bother," Max teased with an impish grin that made it clear he was joking. He was feeling pretty energetic so he wasn't going to slack off and make Knox do all the work, not today at least. It was a nice change of pace, really, with how sluggish he'd been feeling. "I'll make some more, share with the rest of them. Think the door spirit girl likes pancakes?" He snorted at that last part, but hell, maybe being generous and treating her kindly would keep her from fucking with him like she apparently had fucked with Aidan.
Knox laughed a bit and shrugged. “Never hurts to offer, I guess. Maybe it’ll appease her and she’ll go away.” He knew that was too optimistic -- Aya had seemed pretty sure that she was stuck with them just as much as they were with her. It made him want to smack Aidan upside the head for stealing something magical. Knox was sure he didn’t even think to check it, but he should have anyway. But it was done now, they just had to figure out how to fix it. Knox finished off the last of the food on his plate, even scraping up some stray syrup with his fork, and hummed happily as he licked it off. “If she’s anything like me, she’ll love sugar,” he added with a smirk.
"She's not like you though, is she," Max murmured, wiggling his fork with a piece of pancake on it. "If she's dangerous the wards will keep us safe, right? They'd keep her out if she really wanted to hurt us?" He didn't always pay attention to all the magic that took place in the house but he was aware of the protection spells - aware and thankful for them, knowing what he knew about the woods that surrounded their home and their town. He'd always thought of it as a sort of advanced security system that deterred badness from entering - but what if the bad manifested inside the house?
Knox’s expression got serious again right quick. He didn’t know those answers, which was the opposite of reassuring. He wanted to tell Max that it was all under control and they would all be fine, but he couldn’t promise that. “Because she came from the inside and I don’t know what she is ... I don’t know,” he said honestly. Knox couldn’t lie to any of them, it wasn’t in his nature. “But if her only goal was mayhem, we would probably know by now. It’s been quiet so far. Me and Shayna Mae are keeping close watch. But if you need me, call and I’ll find you.” That was the only thing he could definitely say.
Max watched Knox thoughtfully for a moment before reaching out and grabbing his arm by the bicep, giving it a squeeze in a gesture of affection. "Thanks, brother," he murmured. How he had missed being able to do that when he was in prison. He'd come out of there relatively unscathed but it wouldn't have hurt to have a towering familiar at his side - not to mention better company. He didn't think Aya was going to be a threat to him specifically, he just didn't feel all that important, but if she was a threat to the family they'd have to deal with her. They being Max's siblings because he wasn't sure what all if anything he could do about it. Could spirit creatures be shot dead? He doubted it. "Think she's vulnerable to iron? Like the old fairy tales?" he mused as he got up from his seat, still determined to bake a damn mountain of pancakes.
Knox let out a little laugh -- one of his favorite things was to listen to human ‘fairy tales’ and see what their imaginations came up with about the spirits and monsters of the world. He’d been listening to them for centuries, and it never really got old. They were such creative little monkeys. “I doubt it,” he said, smirking a bit at Max’s back. “She said she was bound to the statue, and it wasn’t iron. But I don’t know what she is exactly, so I don’t know anything for sure.” He hated it, but that was the truth of the matter. She didn’t feel familiar to him, like one of his own kind. Aya could do some magic, but she’d been under some sort of curse, so who knew. They would all find out. Since he was done with it, Knox got up to take his plate to the sink and wash if off.
It stood to reason that she wasn't, Knox wasn't vulnerable to any of that fairy tale shit so why would Aya be? Max had to simply acknowledge that he was out of his depth here an he hated every second of it. He focused on the one thing he currently had control over - the pancakes - as he started mixing the ingredients in a bowl. He'd been a decent enough cook before prison and it was good to be free to do something like this again since they hadn't let him near the kitchen while he was doing time. "So you and my sister are gonna figure out what the fuck is wrong with me, right?" he said, casually as if he was talking about the weather. He'd be turning on the mixer soon so if the conversation got to be too heavy again that'd be an easy out.
Knox looked over from the sink, then re-focused on washing the few dishes there were in there. Max didn’t seem to want to look at each other for this conversation, so he might as well be useful. “If you agree that there’s something wrong, then yeah,” he answered. Knox knew it was possible that his recent intuition about Max was off, but ... he doubted it. His intuition had rarely failed him in his long life, and considering the circumstances Max had gotten hurt under, Knox thought it might be even stranger if something wasn’t wrong. “And if we find something, we’ll fix it,” he added, because that part was important too.
"Does this mean I have to participate in your weird-ass ceremonies?" Max asked jokingly and it was the only way he could talk about it; flippantly, like it didn't really matter. He wasn't good at being scared and to be fair he didn't think anyone was but it irked him, especially when it wasn't a danger he could step up and face in a rush of foolhardy courage. Knox was at least easy to talk to about shit like this, he knew him better than anyone else in the family, not pushing or fretting about it. He'd tell Shayna Mae, of course, so Max supposed he had some of his siblings worrying to look forward to.
One of the benefits of seeing a lot over a long period of time was the perspective it tended to give. Knox had seen a veritable fuckton of problems come and go, and he knew most things worked out in the end. Sometimes they didn’t, of course, with horrible consequences, and he’d lost more than one member of the family to bad circumstances, but there had rarely been a magical talent around like Shayna Mae. Knox was pretty confident they could fix whatever was going wrong with Max, or at least minimize the damages. He laughed at the tease and flicked some soapy water at Max. “Just for that, I’m gonna make sure it’s a skyclad ritual,” he joked back, grinning. He did indeed know Max.
"Motherfucker," Max chided him and snickered, shaking his head. He was plenty used to his family members running around naked, especially his sister and that wasn't an issue to him, barely even registered on his radar if he was to be honest. He just didn't particularly want to do it too. It came naturally to Shayna Mae who was so in touch with nature and her magic that Max didn't think she really felt naked for most of it; Max on the other hand didn't much care for it. For Max, nudity below the waist was for sex and showers and that was it. If anything he was more self conscious about it now that he'd been in prison. "Don't get soap in the pancake batter, you dick," he murmured, flicking a drop of dough back at Knox.
Knox had always been a little confused by how weird humans were about nudity. To him it was the most natural state -- he understood clothes to protect against the elements, but notions of modesty were lost on him. He still wore them for the family’s sake, but he preferred to be naked if he was in human form. He tittered as Max flicked some stuff back at him. “Isn’t that like that ‘clean eating’ thing people are always talking about?” he asked, moving away from the sink and wiping his damp hands off on his jeans. Knox put an arm around Max to roughly pull him into a side-hug and smooched the side of his head. “You’ll be all right, lil bro,” he murmured, hand coming up to ruffle Max’s hair ... before Knox darted a fingertip into the batter in the pan to get a tiny taste.
Nudity might not feel natural to Max, but affection did and one of the worst things about being locked away had been the lack of touch. Everyone in his family was big on touching each other, be it hugs or pats on the shoulder and he could feel that hunger for it flaring up now that he was home and able to get it. He leaned into Knox's side-hug, grinning faintly more so for the hug than the reassurance because that bit he wasn't so sure about. "I'm home so, yeah," he said with a little shrug of one shoulder. "Can't get better than that."
“Wasn’t the same without you,” Knox told him with sincere warmth. Max was different from his siblings, unable to tap into the well of magic that hummed under the surface ice of reality, but he still shone in his own way, and Knox loved him. He was family. He ruffled Max’s hair again, then moved away so the man could keep cooking. “Yell if you need me, yeah? I’m gonna do a lap around the property.” He didn’t feel like anything was wrong, but now that he’d eaten, Knox was feeling restless, and getting outside to stretch his wings a bit would do him some good. He could never go too long without fresh air.
"Alright, brother," Max murmured and reached for the radio to turn up the volume again. If he was going to be alone he wanted to listen to music or else he'd get bored shitless. He didn't really want Knox to leave but he wasn't going to say that or try to stop him. The fact Knox did those little security rounds were one of the reasons they were so safe and Max appreciated it. Plus they'd just had what came awfully close to being an uncomfortable conversation so maybe it was better that he left. "I'll have another stack of these when you get back," he added loud enough to be heard over the song playing.
“Fuck yeah, I want some!” he declared jovially as he headed out of the kitchen. Knox was never far away from them, and now that he knew Max had some concerns about himself, he already had it in mind to spend more time with him. They didn’t have to talk, sometimes they could just Be. These quiet winter days made a lot of time for just hanging out. Knox just hoped that Aya’s presence wouldn’t disrupt their peace any more than it already had. It was the resting season, they all needed peace.