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t w e l v e

Friday is Max and Zeke's birthday.

The week went by in a blur, mostly consisting of Barnes and Max bickering and his asshole friends making gay jokes.

But Friday is their birthday and after Zeke's game (which also went by in a blur, Max decided to actually take a nap, which he succeeded in) Gina picked them up and they went back to the apartment.

As soon as Max walks in, he sees a cake.

A chocolate cake.

"Wow." Max nods in approval at Gina, who smiles back at him.

Gina usually buys the cake, and Max and Zeke get gifts for each other. So, after they eat cake, Max gets Zeke's gift (a pair of new football gloves) from his side of the room and Zeke tells him that he will be right back and walks out of their fucking apartment.

What the fuck. Max is temporarily confused but decides that Zeke probably lost it or something, dumbass. Whatever, it's Max's turn to one-up him. Zeke always gets him a better gift and it pisses him off.

Like last year Zeke got him an assortment of markers. There were like a hundred of them, he still has them. It's awesome really.

Max is sitting on the bed, the box in his hands and a frown on his face as he waits for Zeke to fucking get back in here, which he eventually does. Good.

Zeke has a slightly larger box in his hands, and the lid is slidable, and is cracked, with a big bow on it.

They exchange presents and Zeke sits on his bed and Max sits on his and Zeke says, "Let me open mine first."

Max furrows his eyebrows, "Why?"

"Just trust me."

Because Max does, in fact, trust Zeke, he decides to let Zeke open his first even though the tradition is to open them at the same time. Zeke opens his, muttering an 'oh sweet, mine were falling apart' before literally getting up and walking to Max's bed. He sits down and criss-crosses his legs, before facing Max.

"Okay, open it."

Max is about to, when he hears shuffling inside of it. "The fuck..." he mutters, sliding the top open and almost dropping it in shock.

His amber eyes meet its mix-matched eyes. Seriously, they are two different colors, and he is immediately in love.

Zeke got him a kitten.

Max's eyes widen and he smiles the biggest smile probably ever. "Oh my..." he can't even speak.

He looks up at Zeke, who looks very proud of himself. "You've been asking for a cat for seventeen years"

Max looks down to see the black and white (two colors he's sure of) kitten with its paws on the side of the box and it's head peeping out. He slowly reaches in, very gently, and lets the small cat sniff his finger. It sits down and stares at him.

"Hey, buddy."

"It's a girl."

Max rolls his eyes. "She's stilll my buddy." He is eventually able to get the cat to sit on his palm. He slowly lifts her up and cradles her to his chest, then he has a minor freak out.

"Shit, Gina's gonna kill us!" Max looks at Zeke with a worried expression.

"I already know." He hears a voice from the doorway and whips his head around to see Gina standing there. He gives her a sheepish smile, "Thank you."

She smiles back, "What are you gonna name her?"

Max thinks for a moment, before his coloring page cat from last Friday pops up in his head. "Lawrence."