Melted: A MaxTul AU story

Eighty-five: Short and Sweetness

Author's Note: I know a lot of you are pretty thirsty at this point (looking at you @elocin1729 and @ZackGill5), but this chapter isn't it. I had more, but it didn't seem to fit here, so I stopped even though it made the chapter shorter than what has become the norm. More like the earlier chapters. But I wanted to emphasize the sweet before we got to the spicy.

**

For the first time since he met him, Max felt nervous with Tul. He didn't know what was going on with the man next to him, but Tul was giving off a jittery vibe. It wasn't really how he was acting. His demeanor and movements weren't particularly different, but there was just a different energy that Max couldn't identify.

Unlike in the past, where silence between them was comforting and filling, driving in the jeep further into the farm and towards the base of their walk to the ridge, Max felt compelled to fill the silence between them in ways he had never felt before. Was it him? He glanced again over at Tul who looked as though he was excited about embarking on a new adventure or about to go on a trip he'd been wishing to take for forever. When he caught Max glancing at him, he just grinned.

"What's going on with you, Tul?" Max finally asked, and there was a tinge of apprehension in his voice.

"What do you mean?" Tul asked with some surprise.

Max shrugged. "You're different today. I can't read you at all. You're excited and nervous and . . .I don't know what else."

Tul grinned at Max and then turned to yell out the jeep window "I LOVE MAX NATTAPOL!!! I LOVE MAX NATTAPOL. HE IS NEXT TO ME RIGHT NOW, AND HE LOVES ME, TOO! BITE ME, UNIVERSE!!"

The weird tension inside the jeep dissipated, and Max barked out a laugh and continued to laugh as Tul grinned, satisfied with himself. Then when Max finally stopped laughing, he said, "That's it?"

Tul looked back at him, the grin never leaving his face, "Yes. Isn't that enough? I don't have to pretend anymore. Not ever again. I may even get t-shirts made or get 'I love Max Nattapol'on mugs" Tul paused. "Tea towels. I can get them printed on tea towels since you like tea so much."

Max laughed again, amused and warmed by Tul's enthusiasm. The other man frowned a bit in thought. "No, we can't do that. Too many people already love you. I think our paraphernalia has to read 'Tul loves Max Nattapol' instead. I can't be encouraging your fandom and individual worship."

Max laughed out loud again at how seriously Tul was thinking about their personal merch. "You could just not have tea towels, mugs, or t-shirts made. We could just go about our lives."

Tul huffed. "What's the fun in that?"

Max raised his eyebrows and pretended to be hurt. "Is this not fun?"

Tul turned to look at him quickly, and Max pulled to a stop to park and then jumped out, going around to open the back door and pull out his backpack.

Tul got out, too, and did the same. Max came around to him and started to put the headlamp on his head, adjusting it.

Tul just stared at Max's face, which looked even better close up, partly because Max looked delicious close up and partly because being this close to him made Tul so happy. Did Max know?

"Max?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you know how happy you make me? Do you have any idea how being with you just seems to fill up all the nooks and crannies of emptiness I have? Do you . . . "

Max didn't wait. He had to turn his head, so as not to hurt himself on Tul's headlamp, but he pulled Tul in closer and kissed him. His own headlamp was looped over his arm, so it dangled down as he folded his hands behind Tul's neck and pulled him closer. He nibbled a bit on Tul's lower lip, something he spent far more time thinking about in Switzerland than he would ever admit to anyone, and then when Tul moaned, he licked the other man's lips, too before kissing him again.