Hold Me Down- end
Title: Hold Me Down
Author: rebeccs13
Pairing: Josh/Max
Rating: Pg
Warning: None really.
Summary: Josh comes home and has a question for Max.
Author Notes: I wrote this with the intention of only posting it if it didn't take away from the original. I don't think it does.
Disclaimer: Don’t own the boys, just the plot.
Max is twenty six. In the six years that he hasn’t seen Josh he has never taken off the dog tag. He’s had one boyfriend since (a guy called Tom) but Max had known deep down nothing would ever be the same. They broke up four months in when Tom asked Max why he always wore that necklace.
Max didn’t lie.
Tom had smiled sadly through the whole story. He’d known from the start Max was struggling to get over someone. Tom had been so nice about it, kissed Max’s cheek and wished him good luck finding Josh again. It was obvious to him that Max would probably never have another decent relationship. He wasn’t just in love with this Josh guy, Josh was his whole world.
Tom didn’t even want to imagine how much it had hurt Max to let him go.
“I-I’m sorry.” Max whispered. “You deserve so much better than this.”
“Who is he?”
“Huh?” Max asked, confused.
“Who’s the guy you’re still in love with?”
Max had choked on a sob and squeezed his eyes tight shut, feeling Tom rest a hand between his shoulder blades, much in the same way Dan had done after Max had watched Josh go.
“Is it that obvious? It’s been four years… I should be over him but…. I don’t know.”
“What’s his name?”
“Josh.” Max murmurs. It hurts him more than he cares to admit just saying that name out loud.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what happened?”
Max sighs. There are tears swimming in his eyes.
“I umm… I told him to follow his dreams.”
Tom sighs because that’s the hardest way people can break up, the time when neither of them wants to.
“And did he?”
“Yeah.” Max sobs, nodding his head as tears fall from his eyes. “He did me proud, just like I told him too.”
“What was his dream?”
“Become a singer.” Max says, it’s a half laugh. “He’s a brilliant singer. I bet you’ve heard of him.”
“What’s his last name?”
“Franceschi.”
Tom’s mouth drops open a little bit.
“Josh Franceschi. So in all the interviews I’ve read with him you’re the one he always mentions.”
“H-He mentions me? I haven’t read any interviews, too painful.”
“Yeah he’s always talking about how it was the hardest decision he’s ever had to make, becoming a singer, because he had to leave someone very special behind but he was determined to do them proud.”
Tom sees the way Max is trying to hold himself together. Tom kisses Max’s cheek.
“Good luck with finding him, he still loves you too.”
Max sighs, remembering that night as he walks home from work, taking the elevator up to the seventh floor. He still lives in the apartment he and Josh used to share.
Max spends the whole walk down the corridor trying to dig his keys from his bag. He looks up and instantly drops both his keys and his coffee to the ground.
Josh is there. Josh is standing right there, right in front of the door.
He looks stunning. He’s definitely aged and matured since Max last saw him but he still looks beautiful, exactly how Max remembers.
There’s a second of silence.
“Did I do you proud?” Josh asks.
Max’s lip trembles and tears swarm his eyes as he nods.
Then they’re hugging and crying and it’s just like the last time they saw each other, it’s just like the time that Max let Josh go thinking he’d never see him again.
There’s some choked out “I missed you’s” in there and they just cling to each other, as if one breaks away then they’ll be back in the airport again, leaving for good. Max cries into Josh’s neck, tears wetting his shirt.
“I k-kept my promise.”
Max whispers and god, Josh is so glad to hear that.
“Good.”
They pull back a little, taking a second to study each other’s faces and all the things that have changed.
Before either of them even have time to think about their actions they’re kissing, it’s soft and slow and everything Max missed most.
“Why have you come back?” Max asks as soon as they part. “Cause if you’ve only came back for a day or week the I don’t… I can’t… It’ll hurt too much when you have to go again.”
“I came back-“ Josh says slowly, eyes meeting Max’s “Because I achieved my dream. I missed you so much it hurt, every night I was thinking of you and I couldn’t be with other people because I was still so lovesick. I know I’ll never move on from you Max so I came here to ask you something.”
“What?” Max asks cautiously.
“I’ve gotten really famous and I earn a lot of money, more than enough to support us both-“ If this is going where Max thinks it’s going he’s going to cry. “So I wanted to know if you’d come back with me. Come back to LA with me.”
Max nods instantly since he can’t form words yet.
Josh lets out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding.
“Thank god. I love you Max Helyer.”
“I love you Josh Franceschi.”
This time when they say it it’s with a smile on their faces, not tears in their eyes.
They leave for LA in the morning but this time, instead of Max watching Josh fly away into the clouds they’re sat side by side in first class, holding hands all the way.