No. Just NO.

Max wanted a hug so badly that he violated Ezra's personal space while Ezra was sleeping.

This sounds almost rapey to me.

I am touch averse also. I always have been. I loved the pandemic social distancing because, finally, people were keeping a respectful distance from each other! That's why I never did get along very well with my father (RIP), who was probably autistic also. (No, not "on the spectrum." That's a wishy-washy term NT's use because they're afraid to say "autistic.")

When I was around 16, he tried to force a hug on me. I twisted out of his grip and screamed, "You're making me uptight!"

He stepped out for a moment and then came back in. I hadn't moved. I was shut down. Then he put his face in my face, forced eye contact with me, and said, "I have always tried to love you, but you make it so hard. Even when you were a baby, when I picked you up, you cried and pulled away from me."

His eyes were red and watery. I'd never seen him like that before. A memory arose of the time I was small and helpless. His whiskers scratched my face and tummy, his after-shave burned my nose, and I could not get away from his big, rough hands no matter how much I squirmed and screamed.

Sixteen years later, I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me as he put his face in my face and told me how awful I was and let me see him cry.

I wasn't diagnosed till I was 55 years old. I'm glad I'm autistic instead of rude, standoffish, arrogant, clumsy, stupid, etc. It would have been nice to learn earlier, and it would have been nice if my parents knew that I wasn't trying to be difficult; it's just that my brain is wired differently.

Now, in my late 60's, I'm just beginning to learn that I have a right to assert my boundaries. It's a hard lesson to learn so late in life.