𝘿𝙍𝙄𝙁𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙂 - Max Mayfield

7. Madmax And The White Fang

Despite how much he expected it to,the sun wasn't the first thing to hit his eyes... It was Holly.

"Huh?" Aiden squinted his eyes at the four year old. "Wait, how'd you get in my room?"

"Mike" Holly smiled. Aiden shook his head.

"Of course" Aiden shook his head as he sat up in his bed. After rubbing his eyes,he looked to see the girl holding her plushie and still looking at him expectantly.

"You want me to make you cereal don't you?"

Holly nodded. For some reason,she preferred to let Aiden make her cereal over anyone else... Even Karen.

"In a few minutes,buddy" Aiden laughed a little as he got out of bed. "I need to shower and put my clothes on"

Aiden laughed at the pouting girl as he headed to the bathroom.

Some twenty minutes later, Aiden got himself dressed,a burnt orange hoodie over a white tee decorated his upper body, while his bottoms were black cargo pants and his usual black and white Vans.

The teenager whispered his thanks to Sakumo for giving him his own clothes to carry along with him... Not that Aiden had a problem with 80s fashion,but he loved the sense of familiarity his modern clothes gave him.

That and he enjoyed sticking out in the crowd.

Speaking of Sakumo, Aiden hadn't seen or heard from the white haired ninja in a year... It worried him a lot and though he didn't mean to end up in Hawkins, he felt like he'd been abandoned and with good reason too; he failed the man who gave him his powers.

Aiden sighed and shook his head as he pulled on his left sneaker before heading towards the bedroom door. Once he opened it,he was barely surprised to see Holly was still standing there and pouting. The curly haired boy shook his head. When Holly wanted something,she wanted it and she was deadass going to stare at you till she got it.

"Alright kiddo" Aiden smiled and reached out for her hand. "Let's make you that cereal"

Holly's face brightened up as she immediately grabbed Aiden's much bigger hand.

______________________________

If you asked Aiden what his typical Sunday was,he'd tell you

"It's saturday,just with church in the morning"

And so,as soon as the Wheelers were back home from observing the religious exercises,Aiden Dominic Wheeler was on his bike,once again heading to the arcade.

Once he got in,he patted Keith's shoulder as usual, much to the older boy's annoyance. He expected to check the leaderboard and find Max at least close to his current score... What he didn't expect was to find a certain redhead already playing the game as furiously as as he did yesterday.

He was shocked to say the least as he watched her play,her skill actually matching his and probably surpassing it. He wasn't sure even the original show had portrayed her to be this good.

"Uh, excuse me"

He was so engrossed in watching her fingers dance over the control buttons that he didn't have time to look away she'd stopped and turned around,blue eyes meeting his brown ones.

"Why are you staring at me?" She squinted her eyes. "And what's with the weird outfit?"

Aiden blinked in surprise. "I've been waiting for a turn and... I just noticed that you're really good"

"Thanks" the redhead nodded. "I should've had the high score but some bozo named 'White Fang' beat me... Pretty sure he's cheating"

"Okay,first of all" Aiden touched his chest. "Ouch. And second, I have never cheated at anything except a math test"

"So you're the bozo" the girl eyed him.

"In the flesh" Aiden smiled.

"How'd you beat me in less than a day?" The redhead finally stepped away from the game and fully faced him.

"Natural talent" Aiden shrugged.

"Bullshit" the girl looked at him accusingly. "You cheated somehow"

"You can't 'cheat' at an arcade game" Aiden defended. "There's no cheat codes in the 80s–"

Aiden clasped his hand over his mouth as soon as the words left.

"Cheat code?" She asked. "What's that?"

"Nothing," Aiden said. "Just made a stupid blunder"

"You know something..." She stepped forward.

'Me and my big ass mouth'

"Okay,look..." Aiden raised his hand. "What if I play right in front of you to prove I'm not cheating?"

The girl looked thoughtfully for a few seconds before nodding. "Okay,fine... Let's see what you got"

Aiden smiled as he inserted his change into the machine, cracking his fingers to loosen them up before placing them nimbly above the control buttons.

"Observe"

______________________________

The next hour saw the two kids exchanging turns playing, yelling at each other and at the screen in attempts to surpass the other's high score, unknowingly setting higher and higher scores in dig dug. The competition was halted as Aiden felt his pockets and realized he was out of quarters.

"Shit" he sighed. "Welp,I guess that's it for me... Luckily I'm still on top"

"Oh,get over yourself" the redhead flipped him off, trying to hide her smile. "I'm dangerously close"

"But not quite there" Aiden said in a singsong voice, causing the girl to flip him the bird again. "For real though,it was fun"

"Ehh..." The girl shrugged. "It wasn't half bad"

"I guess I should head home before my foster mom loses it" Aiden said.

"I should get going too" The girl picked up her skateboard which had been leaning against the machine the entire time. Both teenagers headed towards the arcade's exit and out the door.

"I had fun today" Aiden smiled as he looked forward.

"Yeah," The girl laughed. "You already said that, cheater"

"I think I clearly proved that I don't cheat" Aiden looked at her.

"Yeah but the name just sticks" she smirked. The lightskinned boy shook his head.

"See you later, Max" he nodded.

"Wait," she looked at him. "How did you–"

"Your player name is MADMAX" He quickly covered up. "It's not that hard to guess what your real name is"

"I never got yours" Max looked at him. "Or do I call you Fang?"

"I thought you were just going to keep calling me Cheater" Aiden smiled.

"Fair point" Max nodded before getting on her skateboard. "See ya around,Cheater"

Aiden smiled as he watched her skate away. "She's even cooler when she's real..."

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Once he got home, Aiden saw Nancy and Barb in the living room. "Yo!"

"Hey,short stack" Nancy chuckled.

"Hi, Aiden" Barb flashed a smile at him.

"Hiya,Barb!" Aiden smiled.

"Someone seems happy" Barb raised an eyebrow at him.

"He met the love of his life yesterday" Nancy said.

"Don't start" Aiden rolled his eyes as he sat on the couch next to her. Barb laughed at the two before the conversation shifted to Aiden and the future... Something they never really got tired of asking and Aiden never really got of talking about.