Neil lay awake in the cot, his own paranoid thoughts keeping him awake again. He sighed and began shaking the small boy beside him.

"Max... Max." He whispered.

Max groaned but only snuggled closer to Neil's chest. Neil sighed and began poking his face.

"Maaax!" He whisper yelled.

Max sighed and looked up at Neil, sleep still in his half-lidded eyes. "Yes, what is it?"

Neil bit his lip and took a deep breath.

"Do... Do you actually love me...?" He asked timidly.

Max sighed and looked down. He looked back up at Neil, now wide awake.

"This is the tenth time you ask that, babe." He said.

"Actually, it's only the ninth. I've been counting and the only way for me to know for sure that you actually love me is if I take multiple tests with slightly differing variables. So far the only differing variable is the time of day but the test results all seem to be coming out as positive but this last test will prove whether or not you truly love me. Max, I really need to know." Neil ranted, somehow not out of breath once he was done with his rant.

Max huffed, but didn't seem to be annoyed, more amused. He smiled slightly at Neil.

"The test results remain positive, I still love you. Now go to sleep you paranoid nerd, I'm tired." He answered, snuggling back into Neil's chest.

"Are you sure?" Neil asked, worry lacing his questioning voice.

"I'm positive. I mean, what would I gain from lying to you about loving you?"

"Your own lust filled desires being fulfilled. You could also be playing a huge prank on me and at any point of time you could humiliate me and ruin my life. You could also just be pitying me so much that you go as low and as far as to pretend to love and date me. And then I figure out that you actually don't even like me and I see you in bed with someone like - like - like Nikki!" Neil ranted, only causing himself to panic even more. He began breathing heavily and tearing up.

Max hugged Neil reassuringly, "Neil, that is insane. Nikki? Ew, she's like my little sister or something. And, I'm not really one to go as far as to pretend to date someone just out of pity. Also, I'm eleven. What "lustful desires" would I have? None. I'm just a normal kid that loves you. No trickery, no pity, no cheating. Just you and me, got that?"

Neil took a deep breathe and hugged Max tightly. "Thank you, Max."

"Your welcome, Neil. Now go to sleep, I'm tired and you need to sleep eventually. I love you." Max said, curling up against Neil's chest.

Neil let out a sigh of relief and held Max tight to his chest. He snuggled into the raven black hair that tickled his nose and the two boys went back to sleep.

They both dreamt of each other and refused to wake up in the morning. It's not like Jasper let them sleep in despite the ice cream and pizza party they were having to celebrate a birthday because they looked too cute and peaceful to wake. Also Jasper wanted their ice cream and pizza so he let them sleep through the party but David made him save some for them because David is a good dad - cough - I mean, David is a good counselor.

Max and Neil ended up waking up around 2:35 in the afternoon and Max demanded that they were given their pizza and ice cream.