"You want to know… why I fight? Why I joined Dipter?" Jay echoed, his voice cracking around the edges.
It wasn't just surprise in his tone. It was something heavier. Something tangled deep in his chest. No one had ever asked him that before, not like this. Not as a person. Not as someone who mattered.
And he hadn't expected it from Max. Of all people.
He thought Max just saw him as the muscle. A blunt tool for a dirty job. Big guy, big fists, end of story. But now Max was asking why, and what's more, he'd said Jay didn't have to fight at all if he didn't want to. No pressure. No strings. Just a choice.
That messed with his head more than anything.
Those words echoed, twisted into something warm and unfamiliar. They brought him back to the first time Max had stood up for him, that moment with Snide. When Max had drawn a line and said Jay didn't deserve to be treated like trash.
That had stuck with him. Maybe more than he wanted to admit.
