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Takes place after El fought with possessed Billy.
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The party walked up the forest path, seeing Hopper's old cabin in front of them. Max had her arm wrapped under the shoulders of her brunette friend to help her walk because the girl was weak and struggling to breathe correctly.
~ "Don't worry. We're almost there." Max whispered to the girl, slowly walking up the stairs of the porch with her while the boys barged in. Max looked at El and sighed, following them. She then searched for napkins, taking El's hand and leading her straight to the bathroom while the rest of the party attacked the food in the kitchen while bickering about what to do next.
Max closed the door behind her, feeling a nervous nausea fill her stomach when she looked into the mirror. El lifted up her chin, looking at her swollen neck and purple bruises Billy's fingers left there. She brushed her fingers across the purple marks, wincing a bit when she applied too much pressure on them. Max stood next to her with her eyes fixated on the bruised skin. It reminded her of the many times Billy's hands bruised her own skin. The thought of her best friend having to go through the same thing sent shivers down her spine. The redhead shook her head a bit to get the thoughts out of her head and stepped a bit closer.
~ "Does it still hurt?" Max asked with her eyebrows slightly scrunched together. El turned to her and shrugged.
~ "Mostly when I talk..." El said in a creaky voice.
~ "Okay. No more talking then." The redhead smiled a bit, trying to lighten up the atmosphere in the room. She took one of the napkins when she noticed blood trickling down from El's nose. She moved her arm up, slowly wiping it off. While she was doing so, her eyes traveled from the blood to the girl's lips and got stuck there for a while. She noticed that from the moment El and her started talking, she's been having weird thoughts and desires. And the feelings...she couldn't understand why she was feeling the way she did. El was making her chest and stomach go all crazy whenever she was near. Like right now. The redhead stared at the girl's lips while the brunette was still looking into the mirror without noticing. Max licked her lips and bit on her bottom lip lightly. She needed to distract herself somehow. The bathroom was uncomfortably quiet now. She took another two napkins and turned the tap on, placing them under cold stream of water. She then squeezed a bit of the water out of them so it doesn't drip and got closer to El again to place them on her neck to cool the burning down a bit. Before she could do so, El flinched away a little, not knowing what are the girl's intentions. Max shook her head, showing her the napkins.
~ "Don't worry. It's gonna feel better when you cool it down. Promise." Max assured her. El looked at the napkins and stepped closer again before lifting up her chin slightly and letting Max place the napkins on her bruised neck.
Max held them there with her hands so they dont fall down and looked up to see El's pained face. The brunette swallowed hard, tears being visible in the corners of her eyes. Seeing the girl like this made Max feel terrible.
~ "I want this to end..." El said in a shaky voice, obviously on the verge of tears. Max was always seeing El as a strong person. Yet, now the brunette had salty tears sliding down her cheeks and it didn't seem like they were going to stop anytime soon
~ "I'm sorry Max...this is all my fault..." she started sobbing uncontrollably. She was the one to start all of this. If she wasn't so stupid, nothing like this would ever happen. Now, all of her friends and people in Hawkins were in danger. All because of her.
Max's eyebrows furrowed and she pulled the brunette into a tight hug. The girl was shaking. It broke Max's heart because she knew for a fact that none of this was her fault.
~ "No, it's not. Don't blame yourself for this." She tried to calm the girl down, but all she got in response was an uneven breathing and occasional gasps for air. She knew these sounds very well and immediately let go of El, taking her arm and making her sit on the floor with her.
~ "Come sit here with me for a while, yeah?" Max said, her voice calm to not agitate the brunette more. It wouldn't help her in this situation at all. El complied and slumped down, leaning her back on a wall while trying to catch her breath. She started feeling pressure in her chest and panicked more, having no clue what's happening. She could feel her heart beating rapidly, her lungs lacking air and forcing her breath to quicken. Max saw that the brunette was not getting better so she took her hands in her palms, brushing her thumbs across the back of her wrists.
~ "Max...I-I can't..." El stammered.
~ "Hey, it's okay. Try to take deep, long breaths in through your nose. It's gonna be over soon." Max instructed, starting to breathe with El to show her how. The brunnete started doing what Max told her and in less than two minutes, her breathing was mostly back to normal. She was even more exhausted than before though. Max let go of one of her hands, wrapping her arm around El, who didn't complain at all. The redhead was warm and soft. El liked that. She laid her head on Max's shoulder. Now it was the redhead's heart that started beating fast, though from an entirely different reason. She was feeling the weird sensation in her stomach that made her cheeks flush and skin tingle again. What she didn't notice was, that El was looking up at her now. Max startled a bit and lightly smiled down at her, internally slapping herself for the fact that she was still blushing. And El noticed that, knowing what it means. Even though the brunette was tired to death after overusing her powers, she smiled softly at the obviously flustered girl anyway and after a while of thinking with her eyes down on the tiles, she looked back up at Max with a bit of fear of the unknown in her eyes. Max, who was currently stuck in a fearful trance was trying to not let her eyes look down at the brunette's lips again. But she failed. Her eyes slowly traveled down to El's soft looking lips before she realised what she's doing and looked back into her eyes. It was like if they were playing a staring contest for good ten seconds before the brunette started leaning up, making the redhead's breath quicken and her eyes widen a bit. Was this really hapenning? Max's head was similar to a panic room right now and before she even realised that El's face is now just few inches away from her's, she felt the brunette's lips lightly brushing her own. That's when she couldn't just stay still and moved her head towards the girl a little, pressing their lips together and feeling butterflies burst out inside her stomach. The fear El felt until this moment was gone the second she felt Max's lips touch her's. It was just the two of them now. No Upside down. No Shadow monster...just them. It made her want it to never end. The brunette started kissing back, eyes closing while her hand moved up and rested on the redhead's cheek, sending little sparks of electricity down her spine.
The girls then got startled by a loud knock on the bathroom door. They jumped apart and tensed, looking in the direction of the sound.
~ "El? Max? Are you two okay?" Mike's worried voice called from behind the door. He was mostly worried for El though. Max sighed and rolled her eyes when she heard him, wanting to snap something back at him for ruining her moment. Their moment.
~ "No Mike, we're both dead!" She said in an annoyed voice that made El chuckle next to her.
~ "Sorry for being concerned! You could finally come out and help us with the plan you know!" He said, not going away. Max smirked at that.
~ "No thanks! Today is definitely not a coming out day..." She said, whispering the last part and confusing the brunette, who had no idea what is she talking about.
~ "What?-...ugh...whatever. Just get out of there. This is serious!" He said and Max finally heard his steps as he went away from the door. The redhead pouted a bit and leaned the back of her head on the wall behind her, scrunching her brows together before feeling El's doe eyes on her. She looked to the side, unsure of what to do or say. Was there really anything to say? Her thoughts were then cut off when she felt an arm slither around her stomach and honey-brown curls tickle her neck. Despite all that was going on right now and the fact she was so nervous her toes were curled, an honest smile stretched across her face. She feared that their moment was ended by the black haired boy. But no. Max enveloped the other girl in her arms, resting her cheek on the top of her head and closing her eyes for a moment. Neither of them knew what's going to happen that night. But as long as they had each other, there's nothing that could seperate them. At least that's what they thought...
