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Max woke up with a start, chest heaving and cold sweat trickling down her spine. The room was unfocused for a moment and she panicked, not knowing where she was until she recognised her skateboard and her walkie and the picture of the Party.
She hated nightmares, especially the ones that were basically just memories. She saw Billy die over and over again, saw herself floating in the air through a portal in Vecna’s hell, her friends panicking and shouting, begging her to snap out of it. Saw Lucas and Dustin and Steve and Robin and all of them fighting for their lives and then the memories turned to scenarios where everything went shit and the plan didn’t work and they were all dead-
Max shook her head. She should really stop thinking about it.
Without having to look, Max grabbed her Walkman from her bedside table and restarted the tape that saved her life in more ways than one. Some would say she became a Kate Bush superfan, but that wasn’t necessarily true. She was growing sick of the song and her voice made her cringe but it always managed to calm her and not think about the bad stuff somehow. Made her think about the fact that she made it, that everyone made it out alive.
When the soft music fizzled out a few minutes later she was met with silence. Her face felt disgusting with the dried tears that she didn't bother to wipe away and sweat. She was contemplating on whether or not she wanted to listen to Running up that Hill again, but ultimately couldn't find the energy to restart it.
This was another thing she hated about herself, wanting to do something, anything, but not finding the energy to, not being able to move her body to do the thing. Her shrink had said that it was linked to her depression and that was reason enough to hate it.
She tried to fall asleep again but every time she closed her eyes Max saw Dustin and El and Will and Eddie and Steve all fighting and there's blood and death and people levitating and her bones started snapping and it hurt so fucking much and-
Max got out of bed, threw on a sweater she found on the floor and hastily slipped into her Vans, grabbing her skateboard on the way out. Sneaking around the trailer had always been easy and didn't necessarily need sneaking to make it out unnoticed as her mother was pretty much always passed out on the couch and not even a tsunami could wake her.
She wrinkled her nose at the smell of beer and cigarettes and BO and saw her mother's figure in the very center of the mess. Not being one to just leave it like that, Max gathered most of the trash that was annoying her and threw it away before leaving the trailer.
The cool October air had a nice refreshing effect and Max was wide awake now. She skated around aimlessly, no destination in mind and only goal to clear it and not think about anything for a while, the scenery just a blur of colors as she passed. It's not the first time she snuck out to skate in the middle of the night and it certainly would not be the last. Max liked the eerie silence being out at 2 am provided, liked that there was almost no one out and about like she was, just a few drunks stumbling home. She knew that her friends that were in the Upside Down at one point or another despised it as it was too much of a reminder.
She was glad that she never had to have that experience and could still enjoy this. The Upside Down had taken so much from her, from them, but at least she still had this.
But even that thought made her want to cry again and Max didn't like crying and being vulnerable, especially outside. And the tears made everything blurry and she fucking hated not being able to see properly. Why the fuck is everything so blurry?! It wasn't a surprise to her when she skated down Steve's Street on autopilot and found herself face to face with the red door, not remembering when she made the decision to come here. Max hesitated. She had been here before, sure, but it didn't change the fact that it was 2:30 am and Steve was surely sleeping and she didn't like bothering him.
She knocked anyway. Because she was selfish and she needed this. Steve understood her in ways none of her other friends didn't. He knew what it was like living in a house with barely there parents and the loneliness that came with it. He understood not liking the silence of an empty house but liking the silence outside late at night. He understood what it was like pushing away your emotions and not dealing with them like you were supposed to. He understood acting like everything was fine when in reality you were falling apart from the inside.
They were kind of close last year before and after the Mind Flayer, there was a mutual understanding between them and caring that was also provided to the rest of the Party, but after Vecna Steve had become a constant figure in her life. He was there when she wanted to talk, or even just a distraction, and would drop everything he was doing to give her his full attention. Nobody had ever done that for her and it made her tear up the first time it happened and Steve panicked because he thought he did something to upset her.
He always welcomed her with open arms so she didn't feel too guilty waking him up in the middle of the night. It wasn't the first time she did.
And because it wasn't the first time, she wasn't as shocked as most would be when he opened the door, nail bat in hand and in a fighting stance. He relaxed when he saw her and tucked the bat behind the door again.
"Max?" He frowned. "What are you doing here? Are you ok? Come in."
He stepped aside and Max brushed past him, inhaling deeply, her shoulders losing some of their tension. She loved that his new house smelled like vanilla and strawberry- his parents house smelled like cleaning supplies and sour somehow and was really unwelcoming at times. She knew that she was being weirdly sentimental right now but she didn’t care. Because this was Steve and Steve got her.
When she heard the soft click on the door closing behind her, she turned around and threw herself at Steve, who caught her with a surprised huff. She wasn't normally the touchy type, but the last few days had been tough for her and she barely slept three hours a day.
"Hey," Steve whispered into her hair softly, running his hand up and down her back in a soothing manner. Max melted into him.
"I'm sorry-"
"No, Max. What did we say about apologizing over basic needs, emotional and/or physical?"
"Not, not do it?" She sniffed into his shirt and smiled.
"Exactly," Steve said, pulling back a little and cupping her cheek. She leaned into the touch as he wiped a few tears with his thumb. He frowned. "Where are your glasses, sweetheart?"
Max blinked at him, confused. "My what?"
Steve chuckled softly, tapping the space on her nose where brown rimmed glasses would normally sit. "Your glasses. That out of it, huh?"
She flushed in embarrassment. Oh, so that was why everything's so blurry. "Sor-"
"Ah ah ah," Steve cut in. "No apologies, we can fetch them tomorrow. Now, what do you say about hot chocolate and gossip in your room until you fall asleep?"
Her smile widened.
(God, she really loved that guy)
…
Max woke up from a dreamless sleep feeling content and safe, surrounded by a heavy warmth that instinctively made her smile. She wasn't the only one that fell asleep gossiping last night.
She turned slightly in Steve's arms and glanced at his sleeping face fondly. It was nice to see him relaxed for once, he was worrying too much all the time. It wasn’t the first time they fell asleep in the same bed and Steve always held on to her protectively. Some might say it was weird and read a bit too much into it, call Steve a paedophile or something, but Max loved it. She knew that Steve wasn’t like that, he was family and family was affectionate. (She had forgotten it was supposed to be like that, with her asshole stepdad and Billy and her now alcoholic mother.)
The room they were in was a coral color, not exactly pink but not red either. Max had chosen it when it kind of became official that this was her room and she couldn’t even remember when that was. It wasn’t even like she lived here or anything, but she stayed enough times to claim a guest room and even decorate it with Will’s help when he was last in Hawkins. There were posters of bands and Kate Bush and drawings that Will made for her but she didn’t trust to stay safe in her trailer. There were even books and notebooks from school on the desk that she had left about two weeks ago. (Not that she could see much right now, but she knew the things were there.)
She was startled out of her musings when she heard noise from the kitchen and immediately panicked. It wasn’t the noise as much as it was the voices. She knew about Steve and Eddie and knew that they lived in this house together. But if Steve was here and she was here, who the fuck was in the kitchen with Eddie?
“Steve?” She asked, nudging the man. He didn’t wake up. “Steve! There’s someone in the house!” She said more forcefully.
“Hm?” Steve groaned and opened one eye. “Oh, it’s just Eddie, you know he lives here…”
“Yes, I know, but he’s talking to someone!”
Steve was fully awake now, untangling himself from her and sitting up yawning. “Oh that’s-” He paused and looked back at her with an unreadable expression. “Ok, so, promise you won’t ask too many questions, it’s still kind of a sore subject and we don’t know much about it ourselves.”
“Ookay? I promise?” He was scaring her a little, but she was curious now.
“Dustin. He lives here now too.”
“WHAT?” Max jumped out of bed and stared at him. “And why didn’t you tell me? Does anyone know about this?”
“Just us and his mother,” Steve sighed and ran a hand through his hair to soothe his bedhead. “Look, this is all new to him and something happened with his mother that he won’t talk about so we agreed to let him stay. Is- is that a problem?”
Max shook her head. “No, of course not. I’m…just surprised, I guess.”
“Okay,” He breathed out and ruffled her hair on the way out. “So, wanna get some breakfast?”
…
Max could pinpoint the exact moment Dustin saw her.
He was chuckling at something Eddie said, a full plate in hand that he was likely moving to the table, when Steve came downstairs with Max trailing behind him. He smiled at Steve, but froze in shock when he noticed her, almost dropping said plate. Eddie saw this and quickly took it from him.
"Morning, sunshine, honey," Steve said, oblivious to the growing tension. He kissed Dustin's head and then Eddie's cheek and Max's heart swelled with affection. That was disgustingly cute.
"Good morning, Dustin!" She smiled and walked around like it was completely normal that she was here and Steve and Eddie also acted like it. It wasn’t a lie, but it was fun confusing the shit out of Dustin, who was practically gaping at them.
“When did you get here?” He asked.
Max shrugged, sitting down. Dustin sat across from her. “Teleported in the middle of the night. “
“Right. And why are you here?”
Eddie spoke before Max could reply. “Dustin.” He said sternly, making the boy look at him. “No asking questions. Max has her reasons and so do you. You don’t want her to interrogate you, do you?”
“No,” Dustin said, lowering his head. “Sorry, Dad. Sorry, Max.”
“It’s fine,” She said slowly, eyebrows both raised. Did he just call Eddie 'Dad'? She looked around to see if anyone else noticed this, but they kept eating like nothing unusual happened. Huh. Interesting.
…
After breakfast everyone kinda went different ways, Dustin up to his room that she found was across from hers, Eddie leaving for work (he works at a record shop now and as a part-time bartender on some nights). Steve stayed behind to clean up and May decided to help him.
He was humming a song under his breath as he took the plates from Max and put them in the sink, one that Max recognised as Dancing Queen by ABBA. She smiled. God, he was so dorky it was almost ridiculous. They worked together in silence for a few minutes, Steve washing the dishes and Max drying them with a towel before stacking them to put back later.
“Are you feeling any better now?” He asked suddenly when they were done, smiling down at her softly. “You scared me a bit last night when you came. This hasn’t happened in quite a while now…”
“Yeah, I know,” She sighed. While it wasn’t unusual for her to be at Steve’s and stay the night, it was coming in the middle of one. The last time it happened she was unresponsive for two days afterwards, like she was in a trance or something, so it was understandable that he was so worried.
“Did something happen?” He continued just as softly, looking at her with kind eyes. “You don’t have to talk about it, but it helps. I know it, you know it, Eddie knows it. Dustin is still new to this, but you are not. You know you can tell us anything, right? No matter how silly or stupid it feels?”
Max couldn’t help but throw herself at him again, a mirror of last night. This was why she liked Steve. He never pressured her to talk, only offered an ear that would listen and she knew he would be there when she needed him. When the nightmares became too unbearable, the nights too long and too short at the same time because she wasn't sleeping, when the paranoia didn’t let her do daily tasks normally. Steve was there, and so was Eddie after a bit of convincing and a lot of trust building.
“I know, mom, thanks,” She mumbled into his shirt and grinned when he groaned.
“Not you too!”
…
“Movie night?”
“Yeah it’s basically tradition,” Dustin said as the two of them set up the pillow fort.
“How is it tradition if you’ve only been here a week?” Max asked amused, chuckling when Dustin shushed her.
“It is now, because I said so! And-” He didn’t get much further as a pillow hit him square in the face. He gawked at her and Max was trying her hardest not to double over laughing hysterically at his facial expression. His eyes narrowed. “Oh, you’re on.”
Predicatively, this escalated really fast into a brutal pillow fight, pillows flying left and right, hitting both the targets and the furniture all around them. Neither showed mercy and it was the freest Max felt the last couple of months. It was hard for all of them to adjust and move on, no one really believed that it was over, even if Vecna’s head had been chopped off. They all dealt with it differently and Max was the type to not deal with it until all the pent up emotions forced her to. She didn’t know how everyone else did it, they all seemed so carefree all of the time! But Dustin being here showed that not everything was fine and she hated herself for not noticing and vowed to pay closer attention to her friends from now on.
“Children!” Steve’s voice boomed from the kitchen when they almost hit the TV, effectively freezing them in place. They didn’t need to turn around to know that he was glaring at them.
They glanced at each other grinning. “Sorry, mom!”
They were both panting heavily, clothes wrinkled, Max's glasses lopsided on her face, their hair a mess. But they were still grinning, a bit feral even. If this was what having a little brother was like then Max liked it.
…
It was hours later when they were all snuggled up that Steve finally asked. Eddie and he were leaning against the couch, each with a kid in their lap. The two had fought over it, but Max had managed to steal Steve for herself. She even stuck her tongue out when she got comfortable, to which Dustin only rolled his eyes, leaning into Eddie pouting. Eddie acted offended but the way his arms wrapped around the boy showed that he didn’t mind all that much.
Max was feeling content, smiling when something funny happened in the movie and gasping at a plot twist together with the others. Steve absent mindedly started braiding her hair at some point, so she now sported two well done french braids (Eddie had hair ties on him).
“So, Max,” He said casually, earning a hum in response. “What do you say about moving in permanently? You spend so much time here anyway.”
“I- I can do that?” She asked hopefully, turning in his lap to stare at him wide eyed.
“Of course, kiddo,” Eddie said. “We’d be happy to have you. What is one more, right?” He chuckled, ruffling Dustin’s hair.
She looked at him next, as if asking for permission. He shrugged, also smiling. “Yeah, why not.”
Her chest felt full of happy buzzing emotions when she turned back to Steve, beaming at him. “I would love that.”
She had a real family now! A home that actually felt like one, filled with people that loved her for who she was and let her be just that.
Holy shit!