Chapter Text
Max was eating breakfast at the table, reading the latest issue of the new Wonder Women run, when she saw El shuffle into the kitchen. She plopped down on a seat and rubbed the dark circles under her eyes.
“Morning sleepy head,” Max teased.
El gave a yawn in reply and put her head on the table.
“Have any good dreams?” Max asked.
“I dreamed of you.”
“Sounds hot.”
“It was a nightmare.”
Max stifled a laugh as she said, “Am I that scary?”
El sighed and said, “It wasn’t you being a monster or anything, it’s what happened to you.”
“I’m intrigued now, keep going.”
El rolled her eyes then started to tell Max about her dream.
“Well there was this thing that tried to kill you, I think it was called Vecna. Anyways, it did and your bones twisted all the wrong ways and your eyes were bleeding out. You kept telling me you didn’t want to die, but there was nothing I could do, so I just had to sit there and...”
El was cut short by the sobs that left her mouth. Max instantly got out of her seat and kneeled down in front of El, grabbing her hands.
“Hey, El, look at me. I’m right here with you in our house. Nothing can get to either of us and we’re safe.”
After a few minutes, she calmed down so Max pulled El into her lap and gave El her fingers to fidget with.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Max asked quietly.
“It was just scary to see you like that, all broken.”
“Well that’ll never happen to me. Besides, it would be cruel that someone would want to do something like that to me, I'm too pretty,” Max said as she flipped her hair.
El let out a laugh of agreement, continuing to fidget with Max’s fingers.
“Yeah, that would be pretty messed up.”
The two of them sat on the floor in a comfortable silence until they heard a clatter in the kitchen.
“William!” Max scolded.
William, Max and El’s cat, had knocked the silverware off the table in what he probably thought was a game. Max slowly slid El off her lap and went to go pick up the mess that was left behind.
El got off the ground and walked over to the sink where Max was standing, washing the silverware. She wrapped her arms around Max and rested her head on Max’s shoulder, leaning into her touch. It might have been silly, but El needed to touch Max to make sure she was safe, but also it felt like she was keeping her safe. The two of them stayed in each other’s embrace until Max spoke up.
“You know, that multiverse Marvel movie said that dreams are just things happening in other universes.”
El instantly removed herself from Max to hit her on the arm.
“Ow!”
“That’s not funny, okay, I can’t think of that ever happening to you in any universe.”
“Don’t worry, it’s just a movie, and a Marvel one at that.”
“What does it being a Marvel movie have to do with anything?” El asked.
“Marvel movies never follow their source material correctly. Also the quality of the movies overall just suck now. Don’t even get me started on how they butchered every character to the point of no return.”
“Yes yes, they ruined everything in the movies. You’ve only gone over this with me about a hundred times,” El teased.
Max smiled to herself, glad to get El’s attention off of her nightmare earlier, but also glad to see her smile.