Commited to Hope

Charles/Max | Magical Realism | 32K | Complete | Explicit

In which young boys make deals to multiply their talent by promising impossible feats—like winning four titles before thirty. And if they fail, the debt comes due. Max doesn’t have to think about that anymore. He’s fulfilled his deal, won four times, and now, incomprehensibly, has his whole life ahead of him.

Charles gets dressed quickly afterwards and doesn't meet Max's eyes while he's pulling on his jeans.

"Think about Red Bull," Max says, then makes himself add: "Depending on how much time you have left."

Charles pauses at the door. "I told you, I don't have a deal."

Max doesn't believe him, but he nods anyway.

I hope you don't mind me getting myself involved in the Atlantic fic but I am obsessed with it and every snippet I read makes me salivate about reading 🫣

I'm not really sure what's your plan for max and Charles meeting (I'm veryyy curious about Max's reasoning for taken Charles in but that can be kept in your docs for mystery ✨)

But why can it be a mix of option 2 and 3? I think as you've been planning a core trait of Charles would be his manipulation ( I don't think it's possible for him to get far in that world without it) so he can be manipulative towards max and max could be none the wiser or more like he has a feeling something is off but he can't get a grasp on it yet? And eventually he understands what's happening and is rightfully angry about it?

I feel like for the enemies part it will very much start 1 sided from Charles side but then the manipulation arc leads to the mutual enemies part and we can have Max's conflict on not returning Charles because it's been a while that they were living together and he knows more about Charles now and so he can't just send him back?

I feel like an underrated aspect of enemies to lovers is that the enemies part doesn't have to simply be hate, like hell the characters don't even need to have any animosity between them, it could simply just be them having very different views/beliefs which at this stage I think is very fitting for Atlantic Lestappen! Like clearly max is not a bed person but he's still very ingrained in the system while also having some conflicted feelings about it that he doesn't necessarily show nor does Charles know about it, and clearly Charles is standing against everything max believes in (whether he's convinced or not is besides the point) so they're clearly standing at the opposite end of the road and I think that can be enough to fuel the enemies part without it necessarily needing any hate or dislike elements. Like they could just be 2 people that are standing on opposite ends and they can't see eye to eye yet and the whole manipulation on Charles part doesn't help his case for max and maybe also Max's acts won't help his case for Charles but there could still be an underlying respect and understanding between that could lead to the trust forming between them.

Idk if that made any sense to you but ig what I'm trying to say is that you don't have to overthink the enemies part, you already have the conflict element between the 2 characters you can just play with it to set up the tone for the enemies part without necessarily involving the characters personal feelings, those could come with your story progressing ofc but just as a starting point you don't necessarily need to have the enemies part be personal to them.

I hope that made sense. And it probably didn't help much but again I'm just obsessed with the idea and can't wait to read it! (Ofc take all your time to finish it!!)

And I absolutely love the writing diaries <33 thank you for sharing those (⁠人⁠ ⁠•͈⁠ᴗ⁠•͈⁠)

Have a good day/night! Please tell me if you want me to shut up and not bother you with these longa** anon messages again (⁠・⁠–⁠・⁠;⁠)⁠ゞ

Oh this is just lovely! Thank you so so so much for lending me your brain! Please get involved :D

I have been leaning in the same direction, now I am trying to figure out the transition from Enemies to them actually working together. I think I need to give Charles more radical views in the beginning of the fic, so they can really be at odds and it can really look to Max that Charles wants to ruin everything he has in his life, i think that could work for both of their character arcs. Fist Charles manipulating stuff and then Max being suspicious and actually feeling betrayed. And then slowly building the trust again.

As of now the reason for Max pulling Charles out of prison is just basically a passing fancy. He’s tired of the regime using him for their PR purposes and wants to be a little shit about it and this is his little rebellion. He’s also shocked to see a person he knows there, convinced that must be a mistake as well. I tend to be super careful about the enemies to lovers tag because I know the common sentiment is that it id overused as a tag first stuff that is not actually enemies to lovers. I think this is a decision far away in my future, once I have a first draft. But it does not really affect the way I want to write this.