#★ i survived before i can survive again ( max mayfield )

[hellxfireclub-moved]

@kardiaerasti​ said:  “   i’m  sick   &   tired  of  everything .   ”

Max shifted her weight from foot to foot, unsure of how to respond to her stepbrother. Billy did not open up to her. Ever. They didn’t have a good relationship because of how he treated her. Like she was property that he needed to protect. It was maddening. Her young mind had trouble wrapping around the fact that the way he was, cruel and sometimes frightening, was symptomatic of his abusive father. Max was not a stupid girl and yet she struggled to to be forgiving of his actions even if they could be explained. The first time Max had seen Neil hit Billy it had terrified her, and yet how Billy treated her was unfair. It wasn’t her fault Neil was a terrible father.

The redhead furrowed her brow and shrugged. “Maybe if you didn’t treat everyone around you like shit, it’d make life easier.” It wasn’t such a novel idea. Billy was just stubborn. “I don’t know...your dad’s a complete asshole but if you had a friend or something to talk to or to hang out with maybe it’d be a little easier to get through the day.” 

It was pointless to waste her breath. If Billy didn’t try to intimidate her for being candid with him, Max would be very surprised.

[hellxfireclub-moved]

@vecnaaone​ said: “ i’m broken. “

                    MAX   STOPPED   SHORT   AND   STARED   AT   her   stepbrother.   She   wasn't   sure   if   she   had   been   meant   to   hear   that,   or   if   he   was   talking   to   her   at   all.   It   was   a   vulnerable   moment   Billy   was   having   and   the   redhead   felt   like   she   was   witnessing   a   moment   that   was   private.   He   wasn't   looking   at   her   and   for   a   moment   she   considered   slipping   away   before   he   turned   his   attention   on   her.   Max   knew   from   previous   experience   that   Billy's   temper   could   go   from   zero   to   sixty   and   she   didn't   want   to   be   on   the   receiving   end   of   his   rage.   Part   of   her   waited   for   him   to   snatch   her   arm   and   squeeze   it,   or   yell   at   her   for   simply   existing.   

❝  I...think   we   all   are. ❞   The   words   were   out   of   her   mouth   before   she   could   stop   them.   Max   winced,   ready   for   whatever   wrath   she   was   about   to   incur   from   him.   

[hellxfireclub-moved]

@hvbris​ sent:  A KISS FROM MAX FOR EL!!! five kisses meme || not accepting

Spring Break hadn’t come fast enough. It had been several months since the Byers, El, and Billy had moved to California after Starcourt Mall had burned down. Neil Hargrove had put up the worst kind of fight to keep Billy in Hawkins but since Billy was eighteen there was little he could do about it. Max had assumed her stepfather had wanted to keep Billy under his thumb because he could control him. Without him, Neil had little reason to stay in Hawkins so he and Max’s mother divorced and the two of them moved into a smaller house. Now she was on her way to the airport with Mike to go visit her brother and their friends. 

It had been a long flight and she was glad once they were on the ground again, and Max had run to hug her brother as tightly as she could. In the time since the mall event, they had exchanged several letters with each other and grown so much closer. Max finally felt like she and Billy were family though she still poked fun at him for his new short hair. She and Mike gathered their luggage and all of them piled into Jonathan’s friend’s van to head to the house. They all had dinner together and then watched a movie before it got late and they were shooed off to bed, Mike in Will’s room and her in El’s. Max changed into a pair of pajamas, brushed her teeth and braided her hair, then crawled into El’s bed next to her. 

“I’ve missed you,” she said softly. She lay on her side, an arm tucked under her head as she looked at the other girl. “It’s not the same without you guys in Hawkins.” Maybe one day they could come back or she could move back to California. 

For a long time she looked at the other girl, studying her features. El was so pretty. Why had Max never noticed it before? She reached out and tucked a bit of dark hair behind El’s ear, an impulse to kiss her suddenly taking her over. So that’s what she did. Max pressed her lips to El’s eyes closing as they lingered softly on the other girl’s.

[hellxfireclub-moved]

@hvbris​ || Max & Eleven

Time seemed to be unimportant as her consciousness wandered through the black depths of her mind. She didn’t know where she was or why. She didn’t know how long she had been in this liminal space of life and death. It could have been days, or weeks, or months. There were times when she thought she heard voices. Her friends’ voices but they were far away and indistinct. Max would scream back at them, trying to let her know she was there. She attempted to run toward them but she couldn’t pinpoint the direction their voices were coming from. No matter how far or fast she ran it was just endless dark. Max had almost given up. 

Almost.

And then there was El. Calling to her, pleading for her to come back to them. Max didn’t know why her El’s voice was the strongest, but finally - finally - after so long she saw the girl in her dark mindscape. Max rushed to her, grabbed onto her, and the next thing she knew...she was awake. 

She clung to her friend, dry sobs escaping her as she did so. She was back. Max was alive and for the most part in one piece. Later she would learn that she’d been in a coma for a few weeks from the earthquake. It had taken several moments for her mother’s words to make sense but then she caught on. Vecna’s plan had somehow been set into place. Maybe she had died? Technically. 

The hospital staff had casted her broken leg and arm, and treated her blurry vision from nearly having her eyeballs exploded. And every day El came to see her. 

The day before she was going to be discharged, her mother went home to shower and get some rest. Max had practically had to shove her out of the hospital room. It was only a matter of minutes later that El came through the door and Max immediately brightened. 

“Hey!” she said, smiling. Max shifted to sit up against the raised head of the bed, then over to allow room for El to join her. “Thank God you’re here. My mom’s been driving me crazy.” 

[hellxfireclub-moved]

@fiercehearts​ || Max & Billy

Max had been lucky. They’d managed to stop Vecna from completely destroying her body. She hadn’t made it out unscathed, though a broken wrist and leg were far better than being dead or blinded. The hospital staff insisted that she stay a few nights so they could make sure Max didn’t have any other injuries that couldn’t be seen, such as internal bleeding, despite her protest. She wanted to know if her friends were okay. 

At least her mother had brought her some pajamas from home so she didn’t have to wear the stupid hospital gown. It was a bit of a struggle to get them on over her cast, but once she was in them and settled on the bed, she felt better. Max’s mother left for a little while to go home and shower, so she was by herself, flipping between the four channels on the hospital room TV when she caught sight of someone entering her room in her periphery. 

Max sat up quickly in the bed, eyes widening slightly as her stepbrother stopped a few feet away from her bed. “Billy?” she asked, surprised to see him. “What are you doing here...?”