why stress over who america should end up with when you could stress about it aspen and maxon could pull it together well enough to have a healthy polyamorous relationship?
My first instinct is no, but only because at first I thought they’d begin in a triad. I feel like they’d both start separately dating America. They prefer having her to themselves most of the time but once they actually get to know each other they become really Really good friends. They talk to America about it but only after they talk to each other, then they decide a triad is what’s best for them. It ends up going like this, Maxon and Aspen both have the urge to protect America and America loves being pampered. Aspen wants to protect Maxon because this boy has countless people who want him dead, that’s what comes with ruling a country. Maxon, more or less, wants to do the same thing but on a more emotional level. Aspen is all about keeping people physically safe but never knows how to deal with emotions whereas, while Maxon’s more emotionally intelligent (I mean, he has to know himself in order to rule and he’s America’s boyfriend,,, that requires a lot of emotional intelligence) he can be physically reckless (1. when he took the beating for America 2. when he agreed to go see the rebels who could’ve merked him 3. jumping in front of a bullet for America, like they’re all noble acts but dude). Maxon helps Aspen understand that opening up doesn’t make him weak and Aspen, as a guard and a bf, protects Maxon against people who’d try to hurt him. Also Aspen and America totally sit Maxon down and are like “babe, please stop putting your life in danger, even if it’s for us.”
