Something Maximus Kim learned quickly about Greek life - there was always a party to attend.
It was one of the more bearable things about being in Omega Chi, having unlimited parties to go to between weekly house parties and big Greek parties at Wildfire. Of course, there was also his big brother, Matteo Villalobos. While some of the older brothers had their opinions of Max tainted by his adopted brothers’ malice for him, he and Teo had connected from the start. There was something about the older man that he always wanted to be around him. Hell, he’d already earned himself a key to Max’s place off-campus since he practically lived there anyway.
Max asked Teo to ride with him to Wildfire tonight, so the two were getting ready. Max made himself comfortable in his bathroom for the last thirty minutes, perfecting his look for the night. He wasn’t going to be one of those basic guys who just threw a sheet around his midriff and called it a night. He wasn’t going to let Teo do it either; he’d bought plenty of supplies for them to share.
“You better be in your toga by the time I get out of the bathroom, Matteo Villalobos!”
Matteo was working on his Statistics homework at Max's desk when he heard his little brother, Maximus Kim, call from the restroom. He mentioned something to Teo about getting dressed for the Greek life party held at least once a year by the Greeks at Pierce University. In all honesty, Matteo had hoped Max had forgotten about the party altogether. Matteo had a lot of schoolwork to catch up on, which surprised him, given that it was just halfway through the fall semester. Despite this, Teo had fallen behind in several of his classes due to his responsibilities as Omega Chi Vice President, Orientation Leader, and owner of a video production platform. Teo was visiting Max's luxury apartment in the city for the fourth time this week. He always managed to concentrate better there, away from the chaos of the frat house. Matteo considered Max's place to be a second home. Max even gave him a key to his apartment to come over whenever he wanted, and Teo has been showing up more frequently since then.
"I'm getting dressed right now," Matteo responded. He couldn't help but smile as he proceeded to flick through the pages of his textbook, penning the formulas in his notebook. He expected Max to walk out of the restroom and chastise him for not getting ready.
Max was right in the middle of working a golden crown into his hair, but he had a feeling that Teo wasn’t getting dressed despite his reply, so he pulled himself from the mirror and stepped over to his bedroom. But, just as he suspected, Teo wasn’t even close to ready. “I didn’t invite you over to do your statistics homework,” Max scolds him, walking into the bedroom and grabbing Teo by the wrist. He thoroughly planned on trapping his older fraternity brother in the bathroom if that meant he would get ready and go to this party. “I’m happy to study with you in the morning, but you’re not missing this party,” Max huffs, dragging Teo into the bathroom behind him.
Max emerged from the restroom and stomped over to Matteo, just as he predicted. Then, as if a mother scolding her child, Max grabbed Teo's wrist and yanked him out of his chair. Matteo tried to resist, but he quickly gave up as he groaned, "Alright, fine." It was impossible to say no when Max acted this way. Teo would do almost anything to see his little fraternity brother happy, and Matteo could tell Max was looking forward to tonight's event. "I'll go to the party with you because you said you'd help me study tomorrow." He tapped Max's nose with his free hand, then leaned his back against the vanity and surveyed the mess of face paint, glitter, and other questionable items on the countertop that made Matteo scrunch his nose. Finally, he turned to Max and said, "You're really taking this whole Greek party thing seriously, aren't you?" He shook his head in disbelief and chuckled under his breath.
Max knew Teo would give into him if he were more stubborn than the older man. There wasn’t much that Max couldn’t get away with when it came to Teo. Both of them knew this, but neither had acknowledged it vocally. Max still grinned as Teo gave in, about to respond with some sassy comment when Teo playfully tapped his nose. It made his cheeks flare up, and he had to return to fixing the golden crown in his hair to make them cool back down. Recently it had been harder to keep his cool around Teo - especially when he did things like that. “Hey, I’m the freshman here. Shouldn’t I enjoy them before I’m too busy like you?” Max asks, winking at Teo once he finally stops blushing. He grabbed the extra costume he’d picked up for Teo and handed it to him. “I wouldn’t have half as much fun if you weren’t there, hyung,” Max used his puppy dog eyes and the pet name he’d picked up for Teo, hoping to persuade him further.
After making skin-to-skin contact with Max, Teo noticed his cheeks were pink. He waited there, watching as Max quickly averted his face. Teo had seen his friend blush before, but watching him seemed like the first time. Teo bent his head to the ground, his hands in his grey sweatpants' front pocket, and bit his bottom lip to hide his smile. However, it wasn't long until Max said something else that caught his attention again. He noticed Max's wink, and before he could respond, Max handed him a costume that matched the one his friend had planned to wear himself. They had talked about wearing matching outfits before, but Teo didn't think it would happen. However, he thought it was cute.
Teo’s face grew hot as he shifted his gaze between the clothing in his hands and the innocent look Max gave him, especially after knowing that Max would miss him if he didn't go to the party with him. What was he going to do with him? Of course, it didn't help that he nicknamed him 'hyung,' meaning 'elder brother' in Korean, as Max had previously explained. Max could call him that all day long, and Teo wouldn't get bored of it. "Well, that gives me even more reason to go," Teo murmured as he fidgeted with the soft material in his hands, his attention resting on Max's beautiful golden crown that crowned his head, making him appear like a god. Teo stretched his hand to straighten it. “I’ll go with you.” All jokes aside, Teo made another promise as his hand carefully slipped from Max's hair to hold his hand.
Max didn’t miss the blush that bloomed on Teo’s face when he used his puppy dog eyes. It was a foolproof way to persuade Teo into doing whatever he wanted - including getting into a matching costume for the party. Max was about to turn back to the mirror to finish getting ready, but Teo reached in to fix the crown in his hair. He couldn’t help but stare up those few inches to Teo’s eyes, a clear affection in his own eyes for the older man. Teo’s hand was warm as it tangled with Max’s own, making the promise even more sure but didn’t help to ease the blush that returned to his own face. Max chuckled nervously, squeezing Teo’s hand before pulling away and fixing his bangs that were already in the right place, needing something to distract from the way his heart skipped a beat. “Well, get dressed then. We still have lots of glitter to use before you’re a proper Greek god,” Max replies with a mischievous grin, grabbing the glitter spray and playfully spraying a tiny bit in Teo’s direction.
If there were a moment in Matteo's life when he could define happiness, it would have been with Max because it was the only time Teo felt he could be himself. He liked how Max's hand fit into his, but Matteo felt his heart drop with it as Max let go. "¡Ay, Chihuahua!" Teo exclaimed, raising his arms to shield himself from the glitter that suddenly sprayed over his face and clothes. Teo didn't see it coming, so he seized Max's can and fired back. “You’re insane, Max.” He smiled when he noticed the gold dust in Max's black hair, which looked like a million stars in the night sky. He set the can down and returned to admiring his work. “There. Now, you are a true Greek god." He told him, but Teo didn’t need a can of glitter to know that Max was beautiful.
Max started giggling as Teo shielded himself from the spray, not expecting Teo to grab the fan from him and take his revenge. Max yelped as he felt the cloud of glitter fall into his hair, trying to guard his eyes against all the glitter. His bathroom was bound to be a mess by the time they were finished, but it was worth it the moment Teo looked at him and called him a ‘true Greek god.’ Max always blushed when Teo complimented him and this time was no different; he looked down to the glitter spray as his cheeks went ablaze. It was hard to keep his composure when all he wanted to do was kiss the man in front of him. “Get dressed, Matteo. If we’re late, I’m blaming you,” Max replied in a playfully scolding tone. He couldn’t lie that he wanted to see Teo in the costume; he knew it would look good. Hell, there was hardly anything that didn’t look good on Teo.
Teo’s eyes never left Max as if he were the only person left in this world. It was poetic, like the colors of a landscape painting with Max as the muse. Then Teo opened his mouth to speak again, but Max beat him to it, breaking the silence by urging him to get dressed. He wanted to say something to Max, anything to make him smile, but he knew it would just make them later than they already were. So instead, he gave Max a faint smile and hurried out of the bathroom.
In Max's room, Matteo tossed the costume on the bed and exhaled a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding in for so long. He brushed his fingers nervously through his thick hair to distract himself from his beating heart. “Pull yourself together,” Teo said to himself as he began to get dressed. He zipped into a pair of slim white jeans and put on a gold fishnet knitted shawl, then a wrap scarf that he let dangle over his shoulder and across his midriff. Finally, he returned to Max after tying his white Vans. “Well?” He waited for Max's reaction.
Max took a deep breath as Teo left the bathroom, trying to regain his composure. It’d been a long time since someone made his heart skip like Teo does. He knew he had a crush on his big brother since they first met on a tour of the campus, and no part of him wanted to get over it. It was just difficult to admit his feelings and risk losing Teo’s friendship; that was something he made a lot of sacrifices to keep. So no matter how much his heart ached just to say something, they kept it to half flirtations and moments that never became more.
When Teo stepped back into the bathroom, Max couldn’t tear his eyes away. He knew Teo would look good in the costume he found, but it was better than he expected. “Wow,” he breathed out, walking forward and running his hands along the fishnet. “Yeah, this was a good choice,” Max says almost to himself, adjusting the shawl to make sure it sat perfectly on Teo’s chest. “What do you think of it?” Max asked, looking up, so their eyes meet, his own hoping for approval.
As Max drew closer, Matteo felt a lump form in his throat again. And the pleasant aroma of citrus fruit attracted his attention right away; it reminded him of summers coupled with spring blossoms. Matteo always liked the way Max smelled, drawing him in like a fish on a hook line. But then, he felt Max’s hands trace the fishnet on his chest, and Matteo found himself entangled in Maximus Kim. In a constant struggle over his feelings for Max, he wondered, ‘am I supposed to feel this way?’ There was no doubting how he made Teo feel, but then there was Roderick, his lightning amid a cloudy storm. Max, on the other hand, was a different story. The more time Matteo spent with him, the harder he fell, complicating everything.
Matteo’s jaw tensed, and his eyes never left Max admiring the garment. He felt like a retail display mannequin dressed in the latest fashion, and Max was a potential buyer. Although he was unaware of how he looked himself, when Max touched him, all that went over his mind, and the only thing keeping the two apart was the thin fabric. Teo was almost afraid that Max would feel his heart beating against his chest. Then, with innocent eyes, Max asked how he liked the costume. “It’s beautiful,” Matteo replied quietly, but he wasn’t talking about the outfit as his eyes never left Max.
Max’s eyes widened. Was he really talking about the costume? He distracted himself by brushing up into Teo’s hair, trying to fix his hair into the perfect waves- trying not to blush all over again. With Teo, everything felt so easy and complex at the same time. He’d spent so long on his own, keeping crushes at bay, that trying to keep his feelings from Teo while being with him alone so much was a struggle. “You can seriously pull anything off. I’m a bit jealous,” Max teased with a small chuckle. He stepped back, admiring the costume once more to make sure that everything was in place.
Then, Max moved into his room, taking the oversized dress shirt off the hanger and switching out of his clothes. Max had to plan ahead with his outfit, finding white shorts to make sure no one would see what they didn’t need to. It was more exposed than he was usually comfortable with, but the girls he’d become friends with while at Pierce had helped with giving him a boost of confidence. He appeared from the privacy of the other side of the bathroom, flattening the fabric in the mirror. “This is going to be much more fun than statistics, trust me,” Max says as he looks over at Teo with a mischievous smirk.
When Matteo saw Max in his costume for the first time, he let out a small whistle. Teo was speechless at how flawlessly each line and stitching fit Max's body. But, unfortunately, he missed what Max said to him since he focused on checking him out. "You look stunning," Teo finally said before slipping his hand in his, and the two walked out to the party together.
RPG
