Fic: The Only Face You See (Max/Louie)
Title: The Only Face You See
Fandom: Disney (Max/Louie)
Summary: The only time Louie doesn't like being a triplet is when he's around Max.
Notes: This is entirely harmonyangel's fault, as she came up with the scenario but refused to write it. I'll get her yet! Obscure character references: Melody and her sister Millie are Minnie's nieces. Apparently in the Disneyverse you can only date someone with the same surname and number of multiple-birth nieces or nephews as you (Daisy has three nieces as well). Aunt Marissa used to date Goofy, which is ew. Oh, Minnie's family! No one cares about you.
Most of the time, Louie liked being a triplet. He had built-in friends, confidantes, and bandmates, and if they ever disagreed on something, they had someone to break the tie. Plus most people couldn’t tell them apart, so if one of them got in trouble, they usually got away with it rather than have the injured party go through the bother of identifying the culprit.
But there were times when Louie really heartily wished that he’d been born an only child, or at least not an identical anything. Especially now.
“You know, I really thought this would suck,” Max said.
They were lying under a tree in Minnie’s backyard. She had insisted that the whole extended “family” come to her Arbor Day barbecue. Huey had spent the whole day chasing after her niece Melody, and Dewey had gotten deep into an esoteric and frankly insane-sounding conversation with Uncle Ludwig, so Max and Louie had found themselves alone, talking under this tree and occasionally shooting Louie’s slingshot at those pills Morty and Ferdie. Dewey said Louie was too old to carry a slingshot, but every time one of Mickey’s nephews jumped and looked around bewilderedly made it worth it.
“Arbor Day in Mouseton?” Max continued. “Totally lame, right? But I’m actually having a really great time.” When he moved his head his eyes went in and out of the dappled patches of sunlight under the tree, bright and dark by turns.
“Me too,” Louie said. He had a feeling he was smiling besottedly, but he didn’t care.
Max gave a short bark of a laugh. “Don’t tell PJ, but you’re, like, one of my best friends. I love hanging out with you.” Suddenly he seemed to blanch. “Uh, I mean, with you and your brothers. You know. Huey and Dewey and…you’re all really fun guys.”
Louie’s heart, which had swelled when Max had used the words “I,” “love,” and “you” in the same sentence, plummeted to the bottom of his rib cage. Was that how Max saw him? As just the tail end of “Huey, Dewey, and…”? He’d thought all the one-on-one time he’d spent with Max since they’d started working together had been special - the company of close friends, if not the something more Louie wished it could be. But maybe it was just because he was the only triplet - the only one of the “fun guys” - available, since his brothers were off having lives.
Having lives, while Louie was pining.
Suddenly he had to know. “I - I gotta do something,” he stammered, and darted away before a startled Max could respond.
He grabbed Dewey first. “Sorry, Uncle Ludwig,” he told the professor. “Triplet talk.”
“Oh, don’t vurry about me, boys,” said Uncle Ludwig, waving a plastic fork at them carelessly. “I have enough coleslaw here to keep me happy until the cows come home. Speaking of which, where is that Clarabelle girl? I promised to explain electromagnetitronics to her.”
“What’s the matter?” Dewey asked as Louie hauled him off.
“Huey first,” Louie replied.
They found their other brother by the drinks cooler with Melody. “Oh, I totally agree with you,” he was saying very sincerely. “Kittens are absolutely the cutest baby animal.”
“Oh, for the love of - “ Dewey began.
“Conference,” Louie informed Huey, and dragged him away by the collar. “Sorry, Mel.”
They slipped past Minnie’s Aunt Marissa, who was glaring across the yard at Goofy and his new girlfriend Sylvia, and into the house. Louie winced. He’d been in Minnie’s house before, but he always forgot how very pink it was.
He yanked his brothers into the downstairs bathroom and locked the door. Then he turned on Huey. “Give me your shirt.”
Huey and Dewey exchanged glances. “Uh oh. Who did you hit with your slingshot?” Huey asked. “’Cause I am not taking the rap for it.”
“No one!” Louie protested. “Well, Morty and Ferdie, but they don’t count.”
“Oh, that’ll I’ll take the blame for,” Huey said with a grin. “You know, I think Melody actually likes the little twerps?”
“What’s this about, Lou?” Dewey asked as Louie took off his baseball cap and attempted to shake out his hat hair.
Louie contemplated lying, but they were both standing with their arms crossed, a pose that told him that they weren’t going to go along with this without full disclosure on his part. Besides, he’d always been terrible at lying to his brothers.
“I want to see if Max can tell us apart,” he said a little defiantly, as if daring them to question him.
Of course, they did. “Sure he can,” Dewey said, tapping his beak. “Remember he told us once we smell different?”
“Yeah, but we’ve been wearing our clothes all day, so if I wear Huey’s clothes, his smell will be on them and cover up mine,” Louie pointed out. “Besides, after Uncle Donald’s incident with the potato salad this morning I’d be surprised if we smell like anything but cilantro, even to a dog.”
“Yeah, that was a pretty intense explosion,” Dewey admitted.
“I still don’t understand why we’re doing this at all,” Huey said. “What’s the big deal if Max can’t tell us apart? Most people can’t.”
Dewey cuffed Huey on the back of the head, and Louie stared sheepishly at his feet. “Max is a big deal to me,” he said finally, in a very small voice.
There was silence for a minute; then Louie felt something soft hit him in the face. He looked up to see that Huey had tossed him his overshirt and was taking off his undershirt. “Don’t do anything stupid while you’re me,” he warned Louie.
“But then how will I stay in character?” Louie asked with a grin, and Huey punched him in the arm. “We’d better mix it up completely, throw everyone off,” he continued. “Dew, you be me.”
“Right-o.”
Clothing was switched quickly; then Huey, grumbling, mussed up his hair to let it mushroom out like Dewey’s, while Dewey stuck all except the front section of his under Louie’s cap. Louie attempted to slick his back Huey-style with the hair gel Huey (naturally) carried in his pocket at all times, before Huey yelled at him for insulting all hair everywhere with his shenanigans and did it for him.
They looked at themselves in the mirror. It wasn’t perfect, but it was close enough that probably no one except Daisy and Uncle Ludwig would notice. Uncle Donald would too, of course, but Uncle Donald had been able to tell them apart basically from hatching onwards. The only solution would be for Louie to avoid him until he’d spoken to Max.
Louie turned to unlock the door, but Huey stopped him. “Lou - what if he can’t tell?”
Louie looked down and kicked idly at the pink shag of the heart-shaped bath mat. “Then I’ll know, won’t I?” he said softly.
“Louie - “ Dewey started to say.
“If I’m not my own person to him…” Louie sighed. “I have to know.”
He looked away from his brothers’ sympathetic faces and opened the door.
Max was over by the food table when they walked out, patiently allowing Minnie to dump an enormous scoop of ice cream onto his slice of vanilla pie. “After all, you’re a growing boy!” she said cheerfully.
“Thanks, Minnie,” Max said, and Louie could tell he was trying not to laugh. He wondered briefly if the fact that he knew Max so well meant that Max knew Louie that well, but Max probably hadn’t been trying to memorize every word and gesture the way Louie had.
“Hey, man,” he said as he approached Max. “What’s up?”
Max looked at him. His brow furrowed a little. “Hey, Huey. Not much.” He glanced at Minnie, then stepped out of earshot of her, and Louie followed. “How’s your new girlfriend?”
“Huh?” Louie blinked, then remembered. “Oh, Melody! Heh. So not my girlfriend.” He shrugged. “She’s a little too precious for me. But you know how it is. She and her sister are the only girls here our age, and can I help it if I’m a sucker for female company?” Inwardly, Louie cringed. He could play his brother well enough, but he had a feeling he was not very convincing as a heterosexual.
Max shook his head, but he was still looking at Louie closely. “Hey, I’m not gonna judge you. I’m a big fan of girls myself.”
I know, Louie thought grumpily, as Max took a big bite of pie. Out loud he said, “Like father, like son, huh?” He jerked a thumb in the direction of Goofy and Sylvia, who were feeding each other petit fours on the patio.
Max shuddered. “Go ahead, put me off all romance forever, why don’t you?”
Louie laughed.
“Ah-ha!” Max crowed, pointing a gloved finger at him. “I knew it! You’re Louie!” His triumphant expression turned perplexed. “Why are you wearing Huey’s clothes?”
Louie was speechless. This was what he’d wanted, but now he didn’t know what to say. And how had Max known?
That was the easiest thing to tackle. “How did you know?” he asked.
Max scratched his head. “Well, at first I just suspected, because you were just…you, you know? Not Huey. And then you smiled, and I knew.”
Louie looked at him blankly.
“You smile different than your brothers,” Max explained. “I mean, not when you’re getting away with something - then you look exactly the same. But otherwise…I don’t know what it is, because you all have the same beaks and the same eyes, but…Huey and Dewy smile like they could never, ever be wrong about anything. Your smile is…shy. Sweet.”
He reddened as he said the last word. That blush gave Louie the courage to answer Max’s question.
“I wanted to know if you could tell us apart,” Louie said, then admitted, “Me apart. I don’t care if you can’t tell Huey and Dewey apart.”
Max laughed a little at that. “Why?” he asked. “Not - I mean, of course you want to be your own person. But why would you ever think I couldn’t?”
Now Louie was blushing. “Well…what you said before. Like, you were talking about hanging out with me, and then it was like, ‘Oh, no, wait, all of you guys, not just Louie.’ I think my brothers are fun too and all, but it was like…like it didn’t matter which one of us you were hanging out with.” He was aware of how forlorn he sounded as he finished, and hated it.
Max made a sudden motion, as if to touch Louie, but stopped. “Of course it matters! You’re…I’m…” He laughed again, a little wryly. “God, I start talking about your brothers so that you don’t know how much I like you, and now I have to convince you I can tell you apart!” Suddenly his eyes widened and he clapped his hands over his mouth, as if he’d let loose with the hyuck to end all hyucks.
Louie’s heart gave the most cautious, prudent of leaps. “Like me. As in…like me?”
Max groaned. “Excuse me, I have to go hang myself now.” He started to walk away, but Louie grabbed the back of his shirt.
“You said you were a big fan of girls,” Louie said, trying to understand. “I know you’re a big fan of girls.”
Max wouldn’t look at him. “Big. Not exclusive.”
“So…” Max liked him. Louie let his hand drift from Max’s shirt to his wrist, closed around it, and tugged. “Come with me,” he said.
Now Max looked at him, startled. “What? Where are we going?”
“Around the house,” Louie said, nodding in that direction. “See, I really want to kiss you, and if I do it dressed like this, Huey will never forgive me for the damage to his ladykiller reputation.”
Now Max did let loose the hyuck to end all hyucks. “Only if we walk fast,” he said, and shifted his hand up to clasp Louie’s.
It seemed that Louie had been wrong. Being a triplet - along with Arbor Day, Minnie’s house, and kissing Max in a quiet corner of afternoon sunlight - was one of the best things in the world.
Fandom: Disney (Max/Louie)
Summary: The only time Louie doesn't like being a triplet is when he's around Max.
Notes: This is entirely harmonyangel's fault, as she came up with the scenario but refused to write it. I'll get her yet! Obscure character references: Melody and her sister Millie are Minnie's nieces. Apparently in the Disneyverse you can only date someone with the same surname and number of multiple-birth nieces or nephews as you (Daisy has three nieces as well). Aunt Marissa used to date Goofy, which is ew. Oh, Minnie's family! No one cares about you.
Most of the time, Louie liked being a triplet. He had built-in friends, confidantes, and bandmates, and if they ever disagreed on something, they had someone to break the tie. Plus most people couldn’t tell them apart, so if one of them got in trouble, they usually got away with it rather than have the injured party go through the bother of identifying the culprit.
But there were times when Louie really heartily wished that he’d been born an only child, or at least not an identical anything. Especially now.
“You know, I really thought this would suck,” Max said.
They were lying under a tree in Minnie’s backyard. She had insisted that the whole extended “family” come to her Arbor Day barbecue. Huey had spent the whole day chasing after her niece Melody, and Dewey had gotten deep into an esoteric and frankly insane-sounding conversation with Uncle Ludwig, so Max and Louie had found themselves alone, talking under this tree and occasionally shooting Louie’s slingshot at those pills Morty and Ferdie. Dewey said Louie was too old to carry a slingshot, but every time one of Mickey’s nephews jumped and looked around bewilderedly made it worth it.
“Arbor Day in Mouseton?” Max continued. “Totally lame, right? But I’m actually having a really great time.” When he moved his head his eyes went in and out of the dappled patches of sunlight under the tree, bright and dark by turns.
“Me too,” Louie said. He had a feeling he was smiling besottedly, but he didn’t care.
Max gave a short bark of a laugh. “Don’t tell PJ, but you’re, like, one of my best friends. I love hanging out with you.” Suddenly he seemed to blanch. “Uh, I mean, with you and your brothers. You know. Huey and Dewey and…you’re all really fun guys.”
Louie’s heart, which had swelled when Max had used the words “I,” “love,” and “you” in the same sentence, plummeted to the bottom of his rib cage. Was that how Max saw him? As just the tail end of “Huey, Dewey, and…”? He’d thought all the one-on-one time he’d spent with Max since they’d started working together had been special - the company of close friends, if not the something more Louie wished it could be. But maybe it was just because he was the only triplet - the only one of the “fun guys” - available, since his brothers were off having lives.
Having lives, while Louie was pining.
Suddenly he had to know. “I - I gotta do something,” he stammered, and darted away before a startled Max could respond.
He grabbed Dewey first. “Sorry, Uncle Ludwig,” he told the professor. “Triplet talk.”
“Oh, don’t vurry about me, boys,” said Uncle Ludwig, waving a plastic fork at them carelessly. “I have enough coleslaw here to keep me happy until the cows come home. Speaking of which, where is that Clarabelle girl? I promised to explain electromagnetitronics to her.”
“What’s the matter?” Dewey asked as Louie hauled him off.
“Huey first,” Louie replied.
They found their other brother by the drinks cooler with Melody. “Oh, I totally agree with you,” he was saying very sincerely. “Kittens are absolutely the cutest baby animal.”
“Oh, for the love of - “ Dewey began.
“Conference,” Louie informed Huey, and dragged him away by the collar. “Sorry, Mel.”
They slipped past Minnie’s Aunt Marissa, who was glaring across the yard at Goofy and his new girlfriend Sylvia, and into the house. Louie winced. He’d been in Minnie’s house before, but he always forgot how very pink it was.
He yanked his brothers into the downstairs bathroom and locked the door. Then he turned on Huey. “Give me your shirt.”
Huey and Dewey exchanged glances. “Uh oh. Who did you hit with your slingshot?” Huey asked. “’Cause I am not taking the rap for it.”
“No one!” Louie protested. “Well, Morty and Ferdie, but they don’t count.”
“Oh, that’ll I’ll take the blame for,” Huey said with a grin. “You know, I think Melody actually likes the little twerps?”
“What’s this about, Lou?” Dewey asked as Louie took off his baseball cap and attempted to shake out his hat hair.
Louie contemplated lying, but they were both standing with their arms crossed, a pose that told him that they weren’t going to go along with this without full disclosure on his part. Besides, he’d always been terrible at lying to his brothers.
“I want to see if Max can tell us apart,” he said a little defiantly, as if daring them to question him.
Of course, they did. “Sure he can,” Dewey said, tapping his beak. “Remember he told us once we smell different?”
“Yeah, but we’ve been wearing our clothes all day, so if I wear Huey’s clothes, his smell will be on them and cover up mine,” Louie pointed out. “Besides, after Uncle Donald’s incident with the potato salad this morning I’d be surprised if we smell like anything but cilantro, even to a dog.”
“Yeah, that was a pretty intense explosion,” Dewey admitted.
“I still don’t understand why we’re doing this at all,” Huey said. “What’s the big deal if Max can’t tell us apart? Most people can’t.”
Dewey cuffed Huey on the back of the head, and Louie stared sheepishly at his feet. “Max is a big deal to me,” he said finally, in a very small voice.
There was silence for a minute; then Louie felt something soft hit him in the face. He looked up to see that Huey had tossed him his overshirt and was taking off his undershirt. “Don’t do anything stupid while you’re me,” he warned Louie.
“But then how will I stay in character?” Louie asked with a grin, and Huey punched him in the arm. “We’d better mix it up completely, throw everyone off,” he continued. “Dew, you be me.”
“Right-o.”
Clothing was switched quickly; then Huey, grumbling, mussed up his hair to let it mushroom out like Dewey’s, while Dewey stuck all except the front section of his under Louie’s cap. Louie attempted to slick his back Huey-style with the hair gel Huey (naturally) carried in his pocket at all times, before Huey yelled at him for insulting all hair everywhere with his shenanigans and did it for him.
They looked at themselves in the mirror. It wasn’t perfect, but it was close enough that probably no one except Daisy and Uncle Ludwig would notice. Uncle Donald would too, of course, but Uncle Donald had been able to tell them apart basically from hatching onwards. The only solution would be for Louie to avoid him until he’d spoken to Max.
Louie turned to unlock the door, but Huey stopped him. “Lou - what if he can’t tell?”
Louie looked down and kicked idly at the pink shag of the heart-shaped bath mat. “Then I’ll know, won’t I?” he said softly.
“Louie - “ Dewey started to say.
“If I’m not my own person to him…” Louie sighed. “I have to know.”
He looked away from his brothers’ sympathetic faces and opened the door.
Max was over by the food table when they walked out, patiently allowing Minnie to dump an enormous scoop of ice cream onto his slice of vanilla pie. “After all, you’re a growing boy!” she said cheerfully.
“Thanks, Minnie,” Max said, and Louie could tell he was trying not to laugh. He wondered briefly if the fact that he knew Max so well meant that Max knew Louie that well, but Max probably hadn’t been trying to memorize every word and gesture the way Louie had.
“Hey, man,” he said as he approached Max. “What’s up?”
Max looked at him. His brow furrowed a little. “Hey, Huey. Not much.” He glanced at Minnie, then stepped out of earshot of her, and Louie followed. “How’s your new girlfriend?”
“Huh?” Louie blinked, then remembered. “Oh, Melody! Heh. So not my girlfriend.” He shrugged. “She’s a little too precious for me. But you know how it is. She and her sister are the only girls here our age, and can I help it if I’m a sucker for female company?” Inwardly, Louie cringed. He could play his brother well enough, but he had a feeling he was not very convincing as a heterosexual.
Max shook his head, but he was still looking at Louie closely. “Hey, I’m not gonna judge you. I’m a big fan of girls myself.”
I know, Louie thought grumpily, as Max took a big bite of pie. Out loud he said, “Like father, like son, huh?” He jerked a thumb in the direction of Goofy and Sylvia, who were feeding each other petit fours on the patio.
Max shuddered. “Go ahead, put me off all romance forever, why don’t you?”
Louie laughed.
“Ah-ha!” Max crowed, pointing a gloved finger at him. “I knew it! You’re Louie!” His triumphant expression turned perplexed. “Why are you wearing Huey’s clothes?”
Louie was speechless. This was what he’d wanted, but now he didn’t know what to say. And how had Max known?
That was the easiest thing to tackle. “How did you know?” he asked.
Max scratched his head. “Well, at first I just suspected, because you were just…you, you know? Not Huey. And then you smiled, and I knew.”
Louie looked at him blankly.
“You smile different than your brothers,” Max explained. “I mean, not when you’re getting away with something - then you look exactly the same. But otherwise…I don’t know what it is, because you all have the same beaks and the same eyes, but…Huey and Dewy smile like they could never, ever be wrong about anything. Your smile is…shy. Sweet.”
He reddened as he said the last word. That blush gave Louie the courage to answer Max’s question.
“I wanted to know if you could tell us apart,” Louie said, then admitted, “Me apart. I don’t care if you can’t tell Huey and Dewey apart.”
Max laughed a little at that. “Why?” he asked. “Not - I mean, of course you want to be your own person. But why would you ever think I couldn’t?”
Now Louie was blushing. “Well…what you said before. Like, you were talking about hanging out with me, and then it was like, ‘Oh, no, wait, all of you guys, not just Louie.’ I think my brothers are fun too and all, but it was like…like it didn’t matter which one of us you were hanging out with.” He was aware of how forlorn he sounded as he finished, and hated it.
Max made a sudden motion, as if to touch Louie, but stopped. “Of course it matters! You’re…I’m…” He laughed again, a little wryly. “God, I start talking about your brothers so that you don’t know how much I like you, and now I have to convince you I can tell you apart!” Suddenly his eyes widened and he clapped his hands over his mouth, as if he’d let loose with the hyuck to end all hyucks.
Louie’s heart gave the most cautious, prudent of leaps. “Like me. As in…like me?”
Max groaned. “Excuse me, I have to go hang myself now.” He started to walk away, but Louie grabbed the back of his shirt.
“You said you were a big fan of girls,” Louie said, trying to understand. “I know you’re a big fan of girls.”
Max wouldn’t look at him. “Big. Not exclusive.”
“So…” Max liked him. Louie let his hand drift from Max’s shirt to his wrist, closed around it, and tugged. “Come with me,” he said.
Now Max looked at him, startled. “What? Where are we going?”
“Around the house,” Louie said, nodding in that direction. “See, I really want to kiss you, and if I do it dressed like this, Huey will never forgive me for the damage to his ladykiller reputation.”
Now Max did let loose the hyuck to end all hyucks. “Only if we walk fast,” he said, and shifted his hand up to clasp Louie’s.
It seemed that Louie had been wrong. Being a triplet - along with Arbor Day, Minnie’s house, and kissing Max in a quiet corner of afternoon sunlight - was one of the best things in the world.