Chapter Text
It had been a week since Max woke up. Today she was able to go home and she already got her left arm cast off the other day. The doctor said it would take a few more weeks for her legs and another week or two for her other arm. Max hadn't been nervous but I had been cautious as they cut the plaster off of her arm. The weapon looked like it would cut right through to bone if the nurse had slipped. She giggled and rolled her eyes as I glared at the nurse, prepared to stop her if the rotating blade so much as grazed her skin. When the cast came off, I marveled at how pale the skin was and how her arm looked because she didn't have it on her watch.
Every day I had visited Max, whether it had been at the hospital or visited her after visitation hours through my mind. It was rare that I had gotten to spend time with her in person by myself, everyone in the party was consistent with visiting her. Things were slowly getting back to normal, as normal as it could go. Max even listened to Dustin explain D&D even if she found it ridiculous. Yesterday, as I told her about my first driving lesson, I had never heard her laugh so loud and so carefree. As I rehashed Hop getting nervous as I rounded curves and only veered off the road twice, the idea of him gripping the 'oh shit handle' and his seatbelt with the other brought tears of laughter to her eyes.
I had made plans to go over to Max's house and spend the night. It was going to be a surprise and I had wanted to be there for her first night back home. The bedroom that she hated, I planned to make new memories for her, new moments instead of the few months she had spent in there alone. I had already gone to the movie store and rented a couple of movies and put my vhs player in Hops truck with my clothes already packed. Hop helped pick out the movies and said we 'couldn't go wrong with Short Circuit, Teen Wolf, The Karate Kid, and The Goonies.'. I haven't watched any of these movies but they sounded good when Hop was explaining them. He even bought some popcorn we could make while we were watching movies.
It was three o'clock and Hopper was supposed to be going on a date with Joyce after he dropped me off at Max's house. The boys were going to start a new campaign together that Erica had put together as gamemaster and Max and I were going to have a girls night. I had to patiently wait another hour before it was time to go over there and give Max a chance to get settled in. Hop and I were both impatient as he went to brush his hair that slowly was growing back out and adjusting the collar of his shirt as he had ten minutes ago.
"Why did we get ready so early?" Hop asked as he walked back from the bathroom, pulling at the bottom of his shirt to try and get a wrinkle out.
I shrugged my shoulders, not really having an answer to give him. "If you and Joyce already like each other, why do you keep going on dates? I thought the idea of dates was to get to know the other person."
"Well they are to get to know the other person, but there are different ways you can know a person." He cleared his throat and it made me think he was telling me something important. "Besides, it's nice to go out sometimes to try new foods or just to talk. I know we had rules before, but now that I'm not so worried about the government trying to track you down, those rules are going to be more relaxed."
I understood but also didn't at the same time. Maybe it was because when I had met Mike, we didn't really start off as friends in the normal sense. We didn't play games together or talk much or hang out in a way that didn't involve kissing. He gave me a place to stay and food to eat and I had grown to care about him and even love him. I didn't know Mike in a different way and maybe that was why it was awkward now.
He had told me he needed a break, the day after Max woke up. I understood, the need to cut a string that was being held too tight. We were growing apart he said and maybe we needed time to see if we would grow back together. I hadn't told anyone, not Hop, nor Max, or Joyce. I figured they all already knew though, the party liked to share things. It didn't bother me, sometimes you needed to put yourself first, give yourself time to heal. The expectation wasn't there anymore, to keep up pretenses, to try and understand why things were so awkward, so silent. It was relieving, a breath of air I didn't know I needed.
I was starting to feel like myself, not just because of the break with Mike, not even because Max was awake. The anger I felt from Henry wasn't tugging in the back of my mind as much. Any anger I felt didn't feel like I was going to explode. Now that all the pieces were coming together, I felt like I could find myself, figure out what I wanted, what I liked. Henry was gone, the threat of the Upside Down was gone. I would go to Hawkins High School in the fall. I had my own identity. My family and friends together, not feeling the long distance from California. I couldn't wait. This felt like it was going to be a good year.
When we finally made it to Max's house, Hop helped me grab my duffle bag filled with everything, he commented that I looked like I was moving in with as big of a bag I had wrapped around on my shoulders. Susan came out on the porch, smiling as she talked to Hop when I went inside. I had memorized the small mobile home from my mental visits with Max, things were slightly different with different curtains, brighter, more welcoming. While I walked down the hallway, the second door on the left, nothing indicating that this was Max's room, nothing written or decorated on the door but I could feel her on the other side.I knocked twice softly against the wood.
"Yeah?" she called out.
I twisted the door knob, the room looked exactly the same as I remembered it. She was in a wheelchair at her desk writing with her one usable hand, her head popped up and turned towards me. That smile that she greeted me with made my own face smile in return, involuntary, I couldn't help myself. Her red hair was down and loose.
"What are you writing?" I asked, setting my bag to the side.
"Just random thoughts, my therapist once suggested it." Max put her pen down and twisted her chair to face me better. "Are you moving in?" She teased and I couldn't stop the heat that came to my cheeks.
"Yeah, I hope you like eggo's because they are my favorite." I crouched down and unzipped my duffle bag, pulling out the vhs player. "We are going to have a movie night…You might have to help me hooking this up to the tv though." The cords had wrapped into a mess.
"It's not hard, I'll show you."
"I hope you don't mind I invited myself over, I wanted to surprise you."
"Color me surprised." She grinned when I looked up at her from the floor. "You know I don't mind, you're always welcome here."
I believed her when she said that.
The argument we had before she woke up hadn't been brought up at all, like it never happened. I meant everything I had told her and I hoped everything she had said she no longer believed. I hoped writing helped her. Maybe it was something I could try in the future, to help sort out my own thoughts.
"Are you staying the night?"
"Yeah, Hop is going to come get me tomorrow night when your mom gets off work." She told me how to hook the vhs player up and get it on the right input for the TV. It didn't take longer than five minutes. "Do you want to see what I've been working on?" I asked her as I went to the bed and sat down, leaving her enough room.
She wheeled her wheelchair closer and nodded. Max always liked to watch me use my powers and that hadn't changed as she watched me in anticipation. I lifted up my hand towards her and felt my mind swirling with power. Like static, raising the hair on my arms. Within a moment, Max was slowly starting to be lifted out of her wheelchair and I pulled her body towards mine, lifting her just enough to move her, not too high or not too fast as to not scare her. I placed her in the empty space beside me. Her mouth opened from shock but somehow contained the smile on her face.
"You didn't even get a nose bleed, you're incredible El."
It was hard to keep the blush rising to my cheeks. "Did I scare you?"
"You haven't ever scared me."
We just sat there for a moment looking back at each other alone in her bed. It felt different than before, from visiting in my mind, or the few times we were alone in the hospital room when she woke. The air felt different but not a bad different. I could smell her. I wanted to pull her towards me and lay there together, feeling her warmth and the rise and fall of her breaths against my own until they moved in sync with another. I had did so many things these past few months, but nothing made me more nervous than when I was with her. My insides crumbled.
"What movies did you bring?" she asked, breaking the transfixation I was falling into.
I scrambled off the bed, giving myself a few seconds of space as I grabbed the movies from my duffle. "Hop helped me pick them out. I got the Karate Kid though because I knew you liked it and I hadn't seen it, also so I would know what was going on when we went to see the second one."
Max flipped through the tapes, smiling at my choices. "Lucas asked me to go to the movies with him to watch the second one, he said I owed him a date."
Why did my stomach feel like it dropped to the floor? "Oh. What did you tell him?" I asked. I felt guilty for hoping she had told him no. It made me feel like I was a bad friend, especially because he had waited for her to wake up just as hard as I had.
"I told him I would think about it." She handed me one and told me not to look at which one it was and to go put it in and I listened to her instructions.
I hopped back on the bed with the remote in my hands, careful not to lean on her casts. She grabbed the remote from my hands with a smirk on her face and leaned against me, her cast against my arm but instead of the hard scratchy service, I could only feel the small touch of her hand against my leg. I couldn't concentrate on anything but that, even as the movie started playing.
The Goonies flashed on the screen and I settled in, moving my hand to grab her own, not looking at her but out of the corner of my eye I could see she glanced at me for a brief second before looking back at the tv. The idea of Max and Lucas on a date slowly faded away to the back of my mind as I heard her laugh at the truffle shuffle. It was the cutest laugh that made me smile and laugh with her.
"We could do that, look for a pirate's treasure when we are older." She said, not taking her eyes off the screen. "Travel around the world to look for it."
It sounded nice, finding a treasure map, being on an adventure with Max when we are older. I could see it. Joyce told me I should think about what I wanted to do when I get older and I hadn't figured out what that was yet but keeping Max in my life even after school sounded nice to me. I wondered if she had plans already for when she graduated.
"I could take care of the bad people so we could get there first."
She chuckled, "Yeah you could."
Her head ended up laying against my shoulder, reminding me of the last time we had a sleepover and stayed up while she read me comics. How could I tell her that she had changed something in me when we started to hang out, that becoming friends with her defined my life in a before and after Max, like it had been with Mike, but in a different way. I still hadn't figured out if I was just not used to having another girl as a friend. If friendship between boys and girls were just different by nature or if I had feelings for Max. Sometimes I hated how much I didn't know, what I didn't learn because I grew up in the lab, not forming connections socially.
By the time the movie was over, our stomachs were growling in protest, rumbling that made us giggle as the sun was going down. The smell of food being cooked was coming through the closed door and smelled delicious.
"I didn't know you were coming over so when my mom asked what I wanted for dinner I told her I wanted fried potatoes and squash. I hope you like it."
I hadn't ever eaten it but if it tasted as good as it smelled I wouldn't have a problem eating it. "It smells good to me. Do you want me to help you back in your chair?"'
She nodded and I went and grabbed the chair and rolled it over closer to her on the other side of the bed. Instead of using my powers, I asked her if she trusted me not to drop her and she nodded again. I bent down and wrapped my arms around her waist while she slid her free arm around my neck. She wasn't heavy even though I wasn't used to using my muscles in this way. Something felt stuck in my throat as she clung to me and I felt her body against mine that wasn't a typical hug. I placed her gently on the seat and moved the foot pegs at the bottom for me and started to wheel her out, tilting my head towards the door to have it open before we had even gotten over there. It was nice to know I could support her body weight with my arms if I needed to
Her mom was in the kitchen, softly humming and swaying as she stood over the kitchen stove, her long red hair flowing at the movement. I could feel Max smiling at the sight of her mother being carefree.
"Food almost done? It smells amazing." She asked her and Susan turned around, smiling to herself.
"Almost, do you girls want something to drink?"
"I can set the table." I said after grabbing a cup for Max and I for some water.
She told me what cabinet and drawer everything was in and I set the place mats for all of us. I liked it here, I liked the atmosphere that it was now and I hoped Max was happier than she was before here. It seemed like she was to me. It kind of reminded me of living with Joyce but even the few months I had lived with her, she hadn't fully recovered from Hops death, from moving us. Even the night I had stayed with Max before, it was tense because of Billy and Neil. It didn't feel like that now. I wheeled Max to the table where I set her plate and Susan brought the food and placed it in the middle, fixing Max's plate and then my own while I took a seat beside Max, Susan sat across from us.
We talked and laughed throughout the entire dinner. Her mom kept telling me stories of Max learning to skateboard, how she broke her arm when she was younger. My mind swirling with images of young Max with her tiny angry self like she had been in the memory I had gone through to find her. Adorable, I thought to myself.
Susan wouldn't let me wash dishes after we ate so I wheeled Max back to her room and put in Teen Wolf after the other movie was rewound and back in its case. I picked her up again, this time not as timidly as before, and put her back on the bed. Her warm cheeks embarrassed at the help needed but I didn't mind at all. I jumped back on the bed with her and this time slinking down so I can half way lay on her. My head in her chest.
"Do you feel different from other people because of your powers?" She whispered while I was engrossed in the movie.
"Sometimes. It's hard to relate to other people because I wasn't raised like other kids."
"I feel different, even though I'm completely normal."
I let out a soft laugh, "You are anything but normal, Mad Max."
She ran her fingers through my hair and it made me so relaxed that I almost fell asleep. I hoped she didn't stop.
By the time the movie was over, the sun had set and we were in darkness except for the TV being on. I had asked if she wanted the light on but a soft no reached my ears. The clock on her nightstand read 10:18.
Her mom knocked on the door and asked if Max wanted to go ahead and put her pajamas on and I felt her nod her head. The light came on, making my eyes slow to adjust to the sudden brightness.
"I'll go get mine on as well." And grabbed my clothes from my bag and took my time when I got to the bathroom, trying to give them privacy.
When I finished and stood outside the bathroom, waiting for Susan to come out, I glanced at a few pictures on the wall that I hadn't paid much attention to before.
Pictures of a younger Max, one with Billy and Max together, a smile on their face that I didn't know if it was real. My eyes landed on a picture of Susan, her belly swollen with her hands resting on it, a huge smile on her face. I wondered if my own mother had pictures of me inside her belly like that and if she had smiled so genuine.
When Susan came out of Max's room. I went back in, Max back on the bed, her face flushed.
"I'm sorry, it's weird, having to have help do most stuff."
"You're not bothering me. Besides it's only temporary, it won't be forever until all of your casts are off."
Max rolled her eyes, "It's still taking too long, we can't have a normal sleepover and dance and goof off when I'm like this."
"I've quite enjoyed laying here watching movies with you. We have plenty of time later to goof off, I promise." I said, turning the light back off and getting back in the bed.
"Don't make promises you can't keep." She said.
I don't know how long I sat there looking back at her, just taking in her face, her blue eyes. "I can keep that one."
Max's POV
Her brown eyes looked right through me, piercing and sharp, down to my soul or so it seemed. So strong it made me believe her, that I could trust her promise, that we would have time in the future.
I had to believe her because I had been right to trust her before. Things were different for my mother, I could tell it wasn't temporary. El had been with me every day. How she didn't get tired of me or bored I didn't know, but I didn't tire of her either.
Even the party seemed stronger now. Finally back together with El and Will back from California. Lucas was attentive every time he came to the hospital once I woke up.
I was naive to think it would be easier had I died. El pleading with me to try and wake up, her anger that matched my own, was a new experience.
Now on this bed, in this room, with her barely two feet from me, I couldn't hide from anything or myself, not with her. How quickly and how hard she had become important to me, was a marvel. It was the only way I could describe it.
The last time I had seen her before Vecna had got me, her hair short, now was growing back. It reminded me of when I first met her, her hair had been longer too, slicked back, it was curly though, waves and curls in every direction. Even her eyes I found were spectacular. Not boring brown like mud but they reminded me of fall, of leaves and a cool breeze. Sometimes darker, sometimes lighter. Right now though they were light.
'I could keep that one.' She said and I bet she could too, I felt like she could do anything within reason and not just because of her powers.
"Do you want to stay up late and watch another movie?" I asked her, breaking her intense gaze she had on me. I wondered if she knew just how intense she could be. El was different than before she left for California. I wondered if she knew that too.
"Are you tired?"
Was I? I felt like I had been asleep for weeks and my mind was finally awake the moment she walked into my bedroom.
"I can stay up for one more."
I stayed in the bed while she got up and rewound Teen Wolf and put in Short Circuit. We would watch Karate Kid tomorrow at some point. She seemed impatient while the tape finished rewinding and I wondered if she would lay on me like she had during Teen Wolf. It was nice and she was so warm.
Would Mike have a problem with her laying on me? Did he know about that moment before where I thought El might have kissed me? Would I have kissed her back? I had thought about that moment on and off since I woke up.
Alone in the hospital bed at night I let it creep back to my thoughts. It had confused me but I brushed it off with the heat of the moment. We were both angry and so close in proximity to each other. She was with Mike and I was unsure about Lucas and where we stood. I just knew I kept thinking of that moment and wondered if it meant anything, if she even realized she did it.
Just like now, as she got back into bed, cuddled up to me and was rambling about how she didn't understand how video and sound was captured on a thin film, I found myself wondering about that almost kiss. Thankfully in the dark with her eyes staring intently at the tv, she didn't notice the deep blush spread on my face.
When she laughed, her elbow slightly dug into my side, but I didn't care. She grabbed my hand and held it and flashed a quick smile at me before looking back at the movie. I had seen these movies before, but it was interesting to see how she saw them.
"I can relate. Breaking out and being surrounded by strangers and new things."
"I tried to run away before we moved here, but I got caught."
Her fingers laced between mine.
"I'm glad you ended up here, despite everything, I'm sorry if that sounds horrible."
Was it horrible? I didn't think it was that at the end of the day despite Neil and then Billy and Vecna, that I got to make friends and bond with four boys and El. I loved them all.
"I'm glad I ended up here too."
That was all that was said until the end of the movie and El looked at me and told me she wanted a robot and I laughed and thought if anyone could build a robot it would be the boys and if anyone deserved a robot it would be El, who saved us countless of times.
"What would you do with a robot?"
"I don't know but I want one like Johnny 5."
I shook my head and poked her side under her ribs and she giggled. It amazed me when she giggled, like a regular girl, like she didn't have superpowers. A lot of things amazed me about her but I really enjoyed watching her reactions or discoveries. How she had looked in the mirror when trying on clothes at the mall and seen herself differently. How she smiled when I read Wonder Woman because she enjoyed it as much as me. How good her laugh sounded to my ears.
I thought back to Lucas, how on and off we were. Would it be the same, did I want that and if I did, then why did I think, in the back of my mind, that I wanted El to kiss me, even for just a moment, if I wanted to tell myself the truth.
"How is it going with Mike?" I didn't want to know and at the same time i did.
"We are learning to become friends again. He broke up with me."
"He WHAT?" I felt so confused. "When?"
"The day after you woke up." El said so simple it made my head spin.
Why did he break up with her. Did she tell him about that almost kiss? He hadn't mentioned it or looked like he harbored hatred towards me when he had visited me..
"Was it because of me?" I couldn't bring myself to ask what I really wanted to ask her.
She was silent for too long and a part of me knew she didn't want to answer that just yet but she opened her mouth anyways and told me.
"No not really? It's hard to explain. I wasn't a good girlfriend after I killed Vecna. When you weren't waking up, it just, it's complicated? It wasn't going well when I moved and the rift that was made from that just got too big to ignore. If that makes sense."
"I'm sorry." It was all I could think of to say. "He will come around."
"I think we might be better as friends if we can become friends after this."
Her words caused something in me that made me unsure and nervous. What did that mean, what did she mean? Could she like me? Did it even mean anything?
"Does everyone else know?" I asked.
"You're the only person I've told, he might have told the others, they hadn't mentioned it to me though."
I wanted to say he was an idiot. That El was worth fixing whatever was broken but no words came out of me. We just laid there for a while until El tickled my side, causing me to poke her ribs until we were a giggling mess, breaking the silence we had fallen into.
We talked and laughed until I couldn't stop yawning and eventually fell asleep. Her, cuddled up to me as I stayed on my back. Had my other arm cast been off I probably would have wrapped my arm around her to hold her.
When I woke up, El was still asleep, still nestled into me. She looked peaceful. Her hair, a mess. I laid there and just watched her for a while until I felt her stir. Her brown eyes were groggy when she started to open them and as she stretched the noise that escaped her lips were so cute that I pushed the smile forming back down in case she asked me why I was smiling like an idiot.
I glanced at the clock, it was still early but that just meant I had more time with her today before she went back home.
"Good morning." I said.
"G'morning." She wasn't a morning person either. El finally sat up and yawned, stretching one more time. "I slept really good."
I used my hand and ran my fingers through my hair, getting it out of my face. "I slept good too, I didn't wake up once."
"Me either. Maybe we should just keep sleeping together." She paused and realized what she had said and started rambling. "It's too early, you know what I meant."
But the damage was already done and my face mirrored my hair in all its glory. "I understand." Laughing, trying to play it cool, like that just didn't happen at all. "Can you help me to the restroom? I have to pee."
She didn't hesitate when she bent down and scooped me up like I weighed nothing and put me in the wheelchair. Her hand under my legs and the other around my back, I'm sure she could feel the warm embarrassment that radiated through my body. She didn't mention my cursed red face either. When I was wheeled out to the hallway, I yelled for my mom to help me in the bathroom, too embarrassed for El to have to put me on the toilet. Just a few more weeks I told myself and I wouldn't need help like this. Sighing to myself.