love in the time of trash fires

Athena was glad to be getting back to work and helping her dad, though she couldn’t stop fretting about how Max was doing at physical therapy.

“If you keep worrying so much your face will stick like that,” Michael said, playfully flicking her ponytail as he walked by. “Max is fine. He’ll be back to normal in no time.”

“I know,” Athena sighed. “I just can’t help it. I’ll feel better when the physical therapist says he’s cleared to live like normal. Well, once I’m sure he’s right and Max is better.”

Michael laughed. “Well, in the meantime, I’m glad to have you back. It was lonely around here without you and Max.”

“Sorry I didn’t come back sooner. Max kept saying he’d be fine if I went to work but I didn’t want him to be alone.”

“It’s fine, I understand.”

Athena settled into a routine for the next couple of weeks, getting back to the clinic and taking Max to and from his physical therapy. She still worried and fussed over him a bit, but he seemed to be getting along with Brian and she started to relax ever so slightly. She still felt a little emotionally unstable from Max’s near-death experience and her mother’s “friendly visit” but focusing on work and Max’s recovery helped to pull her out of her funk.

“When I get full mobility back I’m going to run ten miles,” Max said one afternoon as they got ready to go to physical therapy. Athena gave him a skeptical look.

“You’ve never run in your life,” she said.

“I’m gonna do it just because I can.”

“Yeah, okay,” she laughed.

“It can be my new thing,” he insisted, grabbing his crutches. “I’ve never really had any hobbies before, I should pick something now that my wild days are behind me.”

Athena handed him his jacket but caught his sleeve once he put it on.

“You’re really okay with leaving the Hounds and racing?” she asked. “You’re not just doing it to make me feel better? Because I don’t want you to be miserable.”

“I told you, I’m not putting you through this again. I’ve been thinking about how I’d feel if I saw you get hurt and it makes me wanna throw up. Besides, I’d rather not get killed in some gang rivalry thing, when I’ve got so much to live for now. I could never be miserable with our life.”

Athena smiled, leaning up to kiss him softly. “You’ll keep the shaggy, deep-conditioned hair though, right?”

“If I can. Seeing as how someone keeps stealing my conditioner,” he said, poking her in the side and making her giggle.

“If the lady likes the shaggy hair then it stays,” he added.

“Good. Now let’s go.”

Athena dropped him off at physical therapy, spending a few minutes chatting with Brian before she headed out to work. After another week, Max was able to, slowly, make it up the short flight of stairs to the bedroom on his crutches, which he was extremely proud of.

“Maybe we should celebrate,” he suggested and Athena rolled her eyes.

“You can celebrate with more physical therapy,” she said.

“That’s not really the physical thing I wanna do right now,” he grumbled. Athena just smirked and kissed his cheek. He kept practicing on the stairs and Athena finally told him to give it a rest before he fell and re-broke the leg. She decided to get to the laundry she’d been neglecting to fold and put away. Max was in the living room watching some dorky cartoon and talking about it to Zip.

Athena shook her head, smiling as she started folding the laundry. She balled up some of Max’s socks and put them in the drawer, but then she couldn't get it to close.

“Stupid drawer,” she muttered, pulling it open further and digging around for the source of the problem. A sock had been shoved all the way to the back corner of the drawer, and the fabric of one of the socks had gotten bunched up and was stuck in the drawer track. Athena tugged on it, accidentally yanking so hard the sock came free and smacked her in the face. Only, there was something hard inside the sock that collided with her nose and made her wince. She dropped the sock in surprise, rubbing her sore nose.

“What the hell?”

Something had tumbled out of the sock and rolled across the floor. Athena went to retrieve it, freezing as she reached to grab it. It was a small jewelry box, and it had popped open when it fell on its side. She saw something twinkly inside and hesitantly picked up the box. The twinkly thing was a ring, with a teardrop sapphire flanked by a couple of tiny diamonds. It was simple and beautiful, and it was a ring. In Max’s sock drawer.

Athena made a weird noise that was somewhere between a sob and a squeak, just kind of sitting down hard on the floor. Max apparently heard her sounds of surprise because he called her name.

“Every ring is fine. Uh, I mean, I’m fine. Everything is good,” she called back in a strained voice.

“Then why do you sound so wheezy?” Max called back.

“I’m not wheezy,” Athena wheezed. She didn’t realize Max was coming back up the steps until he appeared in the doorway, his brow furrowed.

“Athena, what—“ He broke off when he saw her sitting in the floor just staring stupidly at the ring box.

“Oh,” he said, going pale.

“This is a ring,” Athena said.

“Yeah, I know.”

“Are you…holding this for someone?”

“What? No.”

“So, you…bought a ring? You’re proposing? To me?”

“I mean my plan had been to do it correctly. I can’t even get on one knee right now, and you weren’t supposed to get the ring from a sock. Your dad is right, it’s impossible to hide surprises from you.”

“My dad knows? How long have you had this?” Her eyes widened. “Wait, you had to have gotten it before your accident. So you’ve been hiding it for…”

“A few months,” Max admitted reluctantly. “I was trying to plan the right way to do it and then I got hurt and—oh, shit, are you crying?” He looked alarmed, hobbling into the room toward her and sitting on the bed. “I’m sorry, this really wasn’t how I imagined this. Or maybe you hate the ring? Oh god, I got the wrong thing didn’t I?”

Athena shook her head, wiping at her eyes. “I don’t hate it,” she said. “Max, it’s beautiful.”

“Oh. Good. Listen, I really did mean to give it to you somewhere romantic—“

Athena laughed slightly, wiping her eyes again and grabbing his face gently to kiss him.