GusMax

GusMax is the slash ship between Gustavo Fring and Max Arciniega from the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul fandoms.

Breaking Bad
HERMANOS

In a flashback to the year 1989, young Gus and Max are shown waiting for Don Eladio at his compound in Mexico. Hector comes out as Max asks Gus to sit because his pacing is making him nervous. The two talk about their plan to pitch Los Pollos Hermanos as both a functional restaurant as well as a shell for the Salamanca drug empire, at that time making the shift from cocaine to methamphetamine. Max ensures Gus that Eladio will love his idea and that it will be picked up by the Salamancas. Hector doesn't speak to either of them and instead stops to urinate in Eladio's pool. Eladio finally comes out with Bolsa to speak with Gus and Max. Eladio is upset with Gus's off-screen fervor to get the meeting but says that he is still interested. Eladio refers to Gus as the "businessman" and Max as the "chef" as they talk. By the end of the conversation, Eladio seems uninterested in the pair. However, Max begins to defend Gus and asks Eladio to give them both, but specifically Gus, a second chance to prove himself to Eladio. As he is begging for Gus to be taken seriously, Max is shot in the side of the head by Hector.

Gus sees Max fall to the ground with this head dangling over the edge of the pool and pushes the chairs aside to charge at Hector, but he is held back. Hector looks smug as Gus screams at him before he is shoved to the ground, forced to lay face-to-face with Max's dead body as Eladio tells him that he will work with Gus without Max, and that he will always be under Eladio and Hector, adding that he is working with Mexicans now, not Chileans.

Better Call Saul
MAGIC MAN

Lalo Salamanca, while talking to Bolsa, says that Gus has hated Hector since when he shot his "boyfriend" in the head.

DEDICADO A MAX

After being stabbed while fighting with a small group of men on the street, Mike is sent to a small Mexican village by Gus to recover and stay out of trouble. Mike assumes correctly that Gus funds the village anonymously, partially because the center of the village is characterized by a water fountain memorial with the placard saying "Dedicated to Max" in Spanish. Mike confronts Gus while he is out paying his respects to the memorial, asking why he is there. Gus explains that he tries to keep his illegal work as far from the village as he can because of Max's fountain. Mike asks what the fountain represents, and Gus tells him that it is a memorial, but refuses to tell Mike that the memorial is for Max.

Fanon
Since the airing of "Hermanos" in Breaking Bad in 2011, fans have theorized that Gus and Max were in a romantic relationship based on their interactions and dialogue in the episode. In the accompanying Breaking Bad podcast made and led by writers and editors on the show posted shortly after the episode aired, creator Vince Gilligan was asked about whether or not Gus and Max were in a romantic relationship, to which he said that it was "up to interpretation," only fueling fans who believed that they had been in a romantic relationship. Better Call Saul only further fueled the idea that Gus was gay based on his behaviors and dialogue of other characters.

GusMax is the seventh most popular ship on the Breaking Bad AO3 tag and sixth most popular ship on the Better Call Saul AO3 tag. The ship is the most popular ship for both Gus Fring and Max Arciniega character tags on AO3 as well.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

Trivia

 * Along with Vince Gilligan saying that Gus's and Max's relationship was open to interpretation, Better Call Saul co-creator Peter Gould said in a podcast in 2022 that Gus and Max were dating.
 * On the newest Better Call Saul Season 6 DVD, writer and producer Melissa Bernstein also said that a scene between Gus and wine waiter David was Gus flirting with David.