Even though the effort was appreciated, Milo still stared warily at the other as he approached. He had communicated his inherent dislike of children clearly, so why would Soleil be exempt from that? Hell, if anything, given how disappointed Maxwell seemed in him, Milo could only imagine that his boyfriend's dislike would be exaggerated when it came to the child. Nevertheless, despite his obvious concerns, he managed a smile as he leaned against the crib.

"You just support her head and neck, it's not that hard to hold her, really. You don't need to do that, Max. I... don't need you pretending you like her or like this situation just to keep things running smoothly-- I'm totally fine if you take a back seat and leave me to do this. I just think you might change your mind if you tried to get involved, even a little bit-- I dunno. You never asked for this so I... don't like making you uncomfortable."
 
“I do like her,” he replied back with clear agitation as he carefully held the baby, his brow furrowing as he tried his best to make sure he was doing it right. He had done some research and knew why you had to hold their necks, which only caused him to panickca bit internally. He smiled softly at her as he held Soleil.

“Sure, I’m not a big fan of children but you’re my boyfriend and I love you, I’m going to do everything in my power to help you and make sure she grows up nice and strong,” he declared before letting out a loud yawn. “I shouldn’t hold her much, though - I might drop her by accident.”
 
  • Nice Execution!
Reactions: potassiumboron
Ever since discovering that he had feelings for Maxwell, Milo had genuinely fallen in love with the other more and more each day. However, never in the past few months had he felt he loved him more than he did now, his smile growing wide at not just the effort Maxwell was going through, but the image itself. He hadn't been a father for that long, but his love for Soleil, as expected, was instantaneous. Seeing the two people he loved most in the world together inevitably made him a little emotional, and he really wasn't afraid to communicate that. He was happy to get teary-eyed if he was emotional, rather than try to hide it like he had seen some friends of his do over the months. That behaviour never really made sense to him and wasn't something he tried to replicate.

"...I've never loved you more, Max. This means a fucking lot to me, I... want you to know that-- god, you look adorable," he cooed eagerly, leaning in to affectionately smooth his daughter's hair from her forehead. "Hey, when she's a little older, we could hire a babysitter-- we can still go out on dates. We don't have to give that up just because she's here-- I have friends I trust to look after her, it'll be fine."
 
“Don’t be corny,” he replied with a flustered snort as his cheeks grew red. Handing the child back over, he let out a deep reluctant sigh when hearing the doorbell ring for the takeout. Motioning Milo to hide Soleil, he took his time to the door - he was clumsy enough, having sprained his leg twice in the last few months, so the sleep deprivation only made his balance worse.

Taking the food, he offered a nervous smile before setting the food down on the coffee table. “Jeez, we gotta get baby food don’t we? I’ve always wanted to try it, to be honest. Shits not cheap, though.”
 
"Unless she ages up really fast, we don't need to think about baby food yet-- I mean, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I'll figure it all out, I'm smarter than you give me credit for. Not as smart as you, sure, but I ain't dumb. I'll work something out, Max," he assured as he grabbed his portion of the meal after setting the baby back down, flopping back onto the bed with a quiet smile to himself. After the eagerness to attend parties and socialise with others a few months ago, being sat in bed on a Saturday night with takeaway food wouldn't have appealed to him back then. Now, it was easily all he wanted to do. Sure, he still wanted to socialise with friends he had made over the months, but there wasn't a desperation to do that now. He was quite happy to stay inside with Max and watch corny TV shows all night.

Which made the knock on the door downstairs all the more irritating for him. Inevitably, he assumed that it was a friend calling around to invite him out, as often happened, and that wasn't really what he wanted at the moment. Ignoring whoever it was didn't sit well either, even if he wasn't particularly happy about letting anyone down.

"...I'll just tell them that we're too tired to head out, yeah? I'd invite them in to hang out but Soleil's sleeping and you need to work, so... I'll tell them we can't do tonight," he mumbled, grabbing the shirt he had absently tossed aside with a silent groan to himself. "I'm not good at letting people down, the guilt gets me every time, Max."
 
On the other side of the door was Ricky. He had very rarely interacted with Maxwell, though he was patient and observant. While Maxwell has started to go out just a tad more once making up with Milo, he still was rarely seen outside of class. Since he shared a solid two classes together that semester, he leaned on the doorway with an irritated frown upon seeing Milo. This would be the perfect way to get to Maxwell, using an apology and the guise of being bad at school to get close again... yet there was the obvious problem.

“Is Max home?” He questioned flatly as he took in Milo, his frown only moving to a grimace. “I need to talk to him. Scratch that, I know he’s home. He hardly leave the house these days, yeah?” He commented before letting out a yawn. “I know you aren’t smart enough to understand calculus so you aren’t much help for me.”
 
"I wonder why he doesn't leave the house that much. Maybe after finding out the one friend he had was using him to try and get sex? I suppose that wasn't very nice for him to learn, hm? He's busy-- we're busy, Ricky. Besides, anything you want to ask him, you can ask me too. We're pretty honest with each other. Honesty's the core of a good relationship. Not that you'd know anything about honesty, you're as two-faced as they come," he responded slowly, leaning against the doorframe with an unimpressed frown, burgeoning on the edge of becoming a scowl. He could lose his patience and his temper, but the fact Maxwell would get upset and the fact he now had a child stopped him from doing anything stupid, however tempting it was.

"I did tell you to stay away from him, didn't I? I'm sure I beat you to a pulp and threatened you if you came onto his doorstep like this. You're sort of violating the terms I set out, Ricky. I'm not too happy about that," the alien continued, folding his arms across his chest in an attempt to look more intimidating... not that he really needed anything to help with that. "...Do you want me to lose my temper again? I don't want to, but I also don't want a deceptive piece of shit sniffing around my boyfriend, so..."
 
"I need help with studying for our class and, like I said, you don't know anything about Calculus," he replied, his tone still flat as he locked eyes on Milo with seemingly strong confidence. He had months to handle and really contemplate what had happened and it definitely mulled about in his mind. He figured that, if he was around Maxwell, the likeliness of being hurt by the alien was much lower than prior.

"Oi, who - yikes," Maxwell murmured once seeing Ricky though, being the kind of person he was, he politely offered a smile - albeit a nervous one. "Ricky, uh.... why are you here? Aha... I thought you blocked my number. Is it about the Calculus final?" He guessed with a nervous laugh, being immediately on the money. "It's pretty difficult but it's getting late..."

"I'm not doing anything else," Ricky replied simply and pushed passed Milo, taking in the house. "Seriously, this shit is way too fucking hard for me, I probably picked the wrong class, eh?" He commented in a murmur as he wandered about a tad. "I'm not interrupting anything, yeah~?"
 
"...We were going to have food, watch TV and probably make out in bed, but hey, come in and ruin our night. I'm sure you don't give a shit anyway," replied Milo, doing very little to mask how undeniably pissed off he currently was. Hell, he felt he had every right to be irked by Ricky's presence, let alone the fact he essentially invited himself inside the house. Normally, Milo could wave it off and see this as an opportunity to expose just how much of a dickhead Ricky was to Maxwell, who had yet to see that with his own eyes, but with his newborn daughter just upstairs, keeping the tension to a minimum would be beneficial. He didn't want the night to end in violence of any kind now Soleil was present in the home.

"You can help him out, I don't care. You know he's going to try to worm back into your good books, right? Don't let him sweet talk you, Max. He's a jerk," he mumbled, frowning more to himself now he recognised the nice night in was ruined. "I'll just... spend the night with Soleil while you... help Ricky out."
 
“Listen, Ricky, I... I don’t know if tonight’s a good night. I haven’t gotten much sleep and I’m barely holding my own right now-“ Maxwell began to admit but was cut off by a very obviously intrigued Ricky who shoved his hands in the pocket of his jacket and laughed.

“Oh, yeah, I heard about the baby,” Ricky admitted with a slow grin. “It’s name is Soleil? Interesting. I’m sure it’s just as weird as you are, Milo,” he commented casually before moving close to Maxwell. “I bet I’m not allowed to see her, yeah? Make out? You two are together? Now, I didn’t hear about that. I just assumed Milo here was making out with another Slut like Georgia and you were just being sad.”
 
Hearing Georgia get insulted really didn't bother him all that much. It still hurt to hear the mother of his child get attacked, but then he only had to recall how horrid she had been towards their daughter for that sympathy to disappear. Instead, he (understandably) got enraged by the attack on his daughter, both when she was referred to as an 'it', and when she was called weird. If Ricky didn't expect him to react, he was far more stupid than Milo assumed. Even though getting angry wasn't really ideal, he wasn't able to just sit back and let the insults go without punishment - that was in no way fair.

"...Say what you want about me, I can deal with that. Insult my daughter and I'll give you another beating-- from what I remember, you were cowering pathetically within seconds. I'm happy to remind you how pathetic you are, Ricky," he slowly murmured, his hands already clenched at his sides and on the verge of transitioning to the claw-like state of his real form. He had no problem changing to that. In fact, he preferred it - it was better for his health and better when he was around his daughter, given she couldn't easily switch to a form of her preference just yet. The only thing that really stopped him was Maxwell. Even if he said he was fine with it, Milo wasn't entirely sure he was, and he didn't want to make the person he loved uncomfortable.

"Just shut your mouth and we won't have a problem. I don't want to hurt you-- I'm not a fucking violent person. I'm happy for you to stay so Max gets to see what a total shit you are, but I'll have no problem throwing you out if you continue to be an ass about me and my daughter, so I recommend zipping it, alright?"
 
“Oh, relax, I’m just teasing with you,” Ricky reassured with a chuckle before moving to step in further, though Maxwell stopped him with a frown. Now, Maxwell was naive but not naive enough to not notice just how rude the words were under Ricky’s usually smooth words.

“I really think you should leave,” Maxwell admitted quietly with an attempt at an apologetic smile. “Listen, I can meet up with you at the library tomorrow and we can study with you there. Seriously, you’re being incredibly rude. I’m not going to let you hurt the people I care about,” he protested, though everyone knew Maxwell wasn’t the most demanding person as was seen by his wavering voice.

“.... fine. Fine, yeah! Let’s study in the library, just you and me,” Ricky replied with a shrug as he shot a glance back at Milo. “Milo being there would just be a distraction, can’t have any of those while trying to focus on the test.”
 
  • Like
Reactions: potassiumboron
The glance back at him, with the suggestive undertones of his words, only made Milo lose whatever grasp he had left on his patience. While he didn't use all the strength he genuinely possessed (fortunately for Ricky), he did land a swift punch that had the benefit of catching the human off guard, and while he hadn't wanted to use violence, he didn't exactly jump to assist Ricky after it. In fact, he folded his arms again and smirked in satisfaction. He didn't condone violence... but Ricky deserved it.

"You can go now. You're bleeding over the carpet and I can't afford to get it replaced," he drawled indifferently, relaxing himself enough to calm the urge to hurt him more. "...You can't fucking say shit about my child, or come here looking to get into my boyfriend's pants again-- I'm not an idiot. I told you to stay away, right? You should probably listen to me, Ricky."
 
"Milo, w-what the hell!" Squeaked Maxwell as he rushed to at least help the startled and now bleeding Ricky who was understandably a bit started by the sudden violence. "Jesus - I'm sorry Ricky, really. Like I said, I'll... see you in class tomorrow. Do you need me to call an ambulance? Are you okay?" He babbled on quickly as he used his sweater to hold the other student's bleeding nose.

"'I'm fine, really," Ricky protested, though had his angry eyes locked on Milo the whole time he was being attended to with a small smirk growing when Maxwell showed him care. He would say it was proof there were feelings of at least concern, which was true, though Maxwell's affection towards the other was dead at this point.
 
Milo hardly expected Max to sit back and let the violence go ignored, but he also didn't expect the instant rush of care for Ricky, especially when it came with a shocked cry of abhorrence. He did naively assume his boyfriend would understand why he had acted out, so to be called out for it whilst seeing Ricky get fussed over like he was the victim was horrifying, so much so he didn't try to hide it.

"...Why doesn't he stay here for the night, I'm sure you'd love that. You can fuss over him and wipe his bloody nose and cuddle him until he's feeling better, Max. I'll go out and... spend the night at a friend's place," he muttered, glancing up the stairs at the faint whining of his daughter, able to hear her far better than a human ear could. "...Or I'll crash at a hotel-- I don't want to be here, I'm clearly a third-fucking-wheel."
 
“Why are you acting so petty?” Maxwell replied once Ricky seemed alright. “Jesus, Milo, I’m just making sure he doesn’t bleed out or something! Ricky, you’ll be okay, right?” He questioned quietly to the other only to earn a (feigned) disappointment.

“No, no, I’m fine...” he reassured, his hands up in proof before stepping out onto the drivethrough. “Wouldn’t want to interrupt your cute little dinner date anyway. I’ll just see you for class tomorrow, eh?” He cooed before offering a wink to Milo despite his beaten state, before promptly saying goodbye and heading out.
 
Rather than say something he really regretted (even though he already regretted a lot of what he had said), he took the anger out on the wall - again. It was a habit he had had growing up, choosing to get angry at something that couldn't get hurt by him, and the walls tended to do the trick. As a coping mechanism, it obviously had its good points and negative ones. It was better than hurting someone he cared about... but it wasn't so good living with the reminder that he had damaged his own home in anger. In that moment, however, he couldn't give a shit if he punched a hole straight through the bricks - he needed some sort of release and that gave it to him instantly.

"You know he's a fucking prick, right? And-- And you're defending that? He just wants to get in your pants, dude, it's pathetic that you're letting him think he can achieve that," he spat angrily, turning to his boyfriend with a look of genuine hurt. "H-Honestly, do you want to be with him, is that it? You've always fancied him-- do you still want to be with him? Because you seem to care a lot about someone who openly wants to use you."
 
"No I don't want to be with him but that doesn't mean I'm going to just let him bleed out on our carpet, Milo!" He snapped in response after closing the door and taking a deep breath. "I may not fancy him but he's a normal guy. A stupid one but you don't seem to be giving me much credit on my intelligence. I... I know that he's trying to do that but I like to think I can see the good in people, for the most part. Jesus, do you really think I'm that pathetic that I'd just follow along with that whole thing? I told you that I love you, I've ALWAYS loved you," he reminded before pinching his brow in frustration.

"You can come with me if you want. I don't like to disappoint people, you... you know that. Jeez - I just wish you wouldn't use violence all the time, Milo. We can't have more holes in the wall, I can't afford to fix them not to mention how would I even explain it to people?" He reminded with a slow frown. "Let's just sit down, get some alcohol..."
 
"...Sorry. Look, I'm sorry, alright? I just-- I'd prefer Ricky if I were you. He's cuter than me, he's-- he's a human for starters. I think there's something seriously wrong with you for preferring me over him. He's an ass, but he's at least he's... human," he pointed out, albeit with a grimace that, in one second of its appearance, exposed each insecurity of his. He was genuinely far more comfortable with himself than he was a few months ago, but that didn't mean he was completely happy. He wasn't like anyone else and as much as he tried to fit in, the fact remained in his head that he was never going to be normal by human standards.

"I dunno, I like you a lot and I don't think I'd cope if you ever left me, I... I think I'd lose my mind," he admitted, cautiously glancing back up the staircase. "...I'm sorry, okay? I don't want to tell you who to hang out with, I do trust you, I just think... I don't want you around Ricky, really."
 
"Well, there are people I don't want you around either but if I say anything, you'll make me feel guilty," he reminded quietly before moving back to the couch, flopping down. "I know you'll never be a human, Milo. That isn't your role in life, right? I mean... I dunno. I know you don't have any memories of your old planet but would you rather go home?" He questioned in genuine curiosity as he motioned the other to join him.

"Don't you think that if I had any intentions of leaving, I would have already? I mean, you had a goddamn baby! I feel like that's a pretty big milestone in our relationship, In my opinion," he reminded as he glanced up the stairs. "I mean, I don't really know why you like me either. You have a lot better options than some needy mess like me. You're funny, cute, likable... and then there's me. You're everything I'm not, you know?" He murmured.