His Red, Her Blue || Max Mayfield

The Mind Flayer

The group were now walking through the woods, following where the pack of Demogorgans went. Steve, Lucas and Dustin were walking beside each other, while Cal and Max walked behind them, their hands interlocked. She refused to leave his side, checking up on him every minute. Before they left the junkyard she had cleaned the dried blood off of Cal's face even when he said that he could do it, she still insisted. Cal was happy that she cared for him.

"You're positive that was Dart?" Lucas asked Dustin, snapping Cal out of his thoughts.

"Yes, he had the exact yellow pattern on his butt." Dustin scoffed, lighting the path ahead with his flashlight.

Cal let out a laugh. "I'm sorry, but why, of all places, were you looking at his butt?" Cal continued to laugh, Max joining in with a soft chuckle.

"He was tiny two days ago." Lucas mentioned, letting out a quick chuckle at Cals previous question.

"Well he's already molted 3 times." Dustin replied, ignoring the laughter coming from Cal.

"Malted?" Steve asked.

"Molted Steve." Cal corrected Steve, having finally calmed down from laughing. "You know, shed his skin to make room for growth. How do you not know this?" He jokingly said to Steve, earning a playful glare in return.

"When's he gonna molt again?" Max spoke from Cal's side, looking at Cal for an answer.

"It's gotta be soon, right?" Cal asked Dustin, who nodded in response.

"Yep and when he does he'll be fully grown or close to it. And so will his friends" Dustin confirmed. Cal felt Max's hand grip his harder, she was nervous. Cal gave her a soft squeeze in return and quickly kissed her cheek before turning back to face the front, not noticing Max's now red face.

"Yeah, and he's gonna eat a lot more than just cats." Steve said, Cal still found it weird he was here but he wasn't going to complain.

Lucas grabbed Dustin's shoulder, stopping him from walking.

"Wait, a cat?" He asked "Dart ate a cat?"

Cal groaned at Dustin's mistake, he knew where this was going to go.

"No, what? No."

"What are you talking about? He ate Mews." Steve decided to give some very helpful information.

"Mews? Who's Mews?" Max asked, confused.

"Dustin's cat." Cal told her. "A cute one as well."

"Cal!" Dustin yelled as Lucas pushed him.

"I knew it! You kept him!"

"No, I... I-He missed me! He wanted to come home." Cal sighed at the excuse.

"Bullshit!"

"Guys, who cares? We have to got." Cal said, trying to defuse the argument. Max agreed with Cal, getting annoyed at the twos bickering.

"I care! Dustin put the party in Jeopardy! You broke the rule of law!" Lucas yelled.

"So did Cal!" Dustin argued, dragging Cal into this before shining his flashlight in Max's face, "He told a stranger the truth.

"A stranger?" Max scoffed.

"You wanted to tell her to dipshit!" Cal argued back.

"But I didn't Cal okay?" Cal groaned before his attention was caught by a screech in the distance. He turned to Steve, who was already walking that way, and quickly followed.

"Guys?" Steve called out, trying to get the others' attention. "Guys!" he yelled, stopping the argument and having everyone hear the screeching.

They all started to follow the noise except Max, who grabbed Cal's hand, stopping him. "No, no, no. Hey, guys why are you headed towards the sound? Hello? Hello?" She yelled out. Cal looked at Max and gave her a small smile.