Just Fine (RE-EDITING)

Chapter Five

School ended and before any of them knew it, Alvin and Max ended up back home. Lunch was spectacularly boring, Alvin had concluded as he ate his weird salad that Abby had wanted to make for him. It didn't look particularly appetizing but the taste wasn't so bad. However, Max had already gone into their room and grabbed his snowboard when he learned that there was some new snow for him to glide down. Alvin hadn't seen him during the whole entire afternoon.

Alvin found this peace of time a good opportunity for him to finish some of his latest projects. He couldn't really get to finish them whenever Max was around. He would somehow end up doing something weird that would distract Alvin or when he got too bored, the snowboarder would insist on touching Alvin's stuff until something exploded or was destroyed. Even though it amused Alvin sometimes, it really wasn't something that he wanted to become some normalcy in his life.

His things were better off not turning into some weird colorful failure or exploding into either his or Max's face.

By the time Max had come back home, it was almost nearing dinner time and Alvin had just finished with his invention, sighing happily when he looked at his new born baby. Taking off his goggles, he noticed Max had entered their room, carrying his snowboard with a happy smile on his face. Alvin raised an eyebrow at him before he shook his head slowly and went back to placing the goggles on the table and continued on stripping himself from the lab coat.

"Hi, Shred," Max greeted as Alvin looked at him with a smile before he adjusted his glasses on his face.

"Hey, Max," Alvin replied as Max took off his thick jacket and proceeded to lay them down on the bed. Silence ventured in before Alvin sighed again and walked to his bed before he plopped down, trying to decide what to do next. "Had fun?" Alvin asked after a while of silence, causing Max to look at him with a grin on his face.

Max placed his snowboard against the wall before he took off his helmet and placed them on his bed. He stretched a bit before he sat on his bed to look at Shred.

"Yeah, man," Max said, excitement clearly rolling off on every word. "The best snowboarding ever so far."

"That's nice," Alvin said, even though he was losing interest already. "I had managed to find some peace in your absence to finish up most of my projects."

"Cool, man," Max nodded, his grin still plastered on his face, a genuine interest, unlike Alvin's, lightening his face up. "What did you make this time?"

Alvin proudly looked back at his working desk and smiled widely. "I managed to finish up the X-ray glasses that I had been talking about. They're still a bit off here and there but the prototype is working quite well if I do say so myself."

Max beamed up at the invention. "Like you can see through people and stuff?" Max asked, suddenly piqued up with more than just curiosity. Alvin raised an eyebrow before chuckling.

"Not just through people, Max," Alvin said. "It can be adjusted to see through different layers such as through skin, through bones, through concrete and more." Alvin just let the words to hang out in air in the simplest way possible so Max could understand without getting confused.

"Can I try?" Max asked as Alvin sighed.

"Not now, Max," Alvin said. "I just finished them. I'm going to have to make sure they're really safe for human eyes tomorrow before letting you try them," Alvin continued as Max nodded, somehow looking real understanding. These quiet and subtle changes in Max's way of conversing with Alvin were not left unnoticed. The young scientist noticed them, how Max was showing true, genuine interest for Science that doesn't give him benefit in return and how Max didn't push him about wanting to try one of Alvin's inventions.