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Instead they gather collection of photos of the two of them from when they were kids, all ranging in ages. These become the photos they use in their shared author/illustrator bio.

It's still the 90s when they begin publishing, and so their bio is carefully worded to not suggest they might be a couple in their first books. Marketed as a best friend duo. But as time goes on, they get to make it more and more clear, and they slowly run out of photos from childhood and begin using ones from college, then after. Each one it becomes more clear they're a couple.

because imagine them bickering and arguing the whole time and then they have to go through their worst memories and they're just kind of quiet because obviously they're not laughing and joking anymore but they still don't really like each other so it's all a bit awkward

and then max stumbles upon 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 and mike is just 𝙬𝙖𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 for the criticism but it 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙨 and instead max hugs him for the first time ever and that is so so important to mike because even the person who 𝙙𝙞𝙙𝙣'𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙝𝙞𝙢 still didn't hesitate to 𝙖𝙘𝙘𝙚𝙥𝙩 𝙝𝙞𝙢, even as the 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬

and then she helps him face it by explaining to him that music was never the answer to getting out of here, it was her love for lucas, because 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙧

And so when will plays his first match against mike, this alleged champion who’s name he’s never heard of, he does it again, and he stares into his eyes, expecting him to get fidgety and paranoid, but instead, mike just slowly moves his piece and whispers in this incredibly seductive voice “your move.” just two words, and he mimic’s will’s pose and then will is the one who’s flustered and he just taps his fingers on the table not knowing what move to make, and eventually after 50 more moves, he’s in a terrible position, stuck in a Zugzwang, and he will definitely lose, will, the youngest IM, soon to be GM, is going to lose against mister pretty boy, and so he pushes his king down onto the board, and offers his hand to mike

And now he wants to find out more about the guy he just lost to for the first time