Home ||~~Elax/Elmax~~||

All good things must end

The guys had already disbanded, Mike and Will going up to Mike's room to change, Lucas and Dustin going to their homes. They'd be back later for pizza and movie night, just like old times.

"Max, it's fine, I knew it was going to happen, we just never talked about it" El said as they reached home.

Max sighed, "it feels like I've only just got you back and now I'm going to leave you."

"It's only one year, I know that, I was just being an idiot" she said, smiling at Max, "when I get tired, I don't know, my mood drops a lot, I'm still recovering up here I think" she added, pointing to her head.

"Come on, lets get out of these wet clothes" Max replied, pulling El gently by the hand towards the stairs.

Max grabbed her clothes from Nancy's room and joined El in hers. She couldn't help but watch as El peeled her wet clothes off, and smiled to herself when she remembered the very same thing from almost 2 years ago. This time, however, she didn't look away when El caught her watching. "Like what you see?" El asked, unable to identify the smile on Max's face.

Max walked over to her and pulled her close, "do you remember the last time we were here after a water fight?"

El thought for a few seconds then broke into a grin, "you looked away, it was when I first noticed something had changed between us...and I couldn't work out why." She looked sad for a split second, "I thought I was losing you back then, that I'd done something wrong...that's when I realized how scared I was, the thought of losing you made me feel so lost myself..." And then she laughed and her face went red.

"What?" ask Max incredulously, "you're laughing at that!"

"Oh, no, no...I wasn't laughing at that exactly" El insisted, "just what I did later."

Max just looked at her, clearly waiting for an explanation which she obviously wasn't getting, still El missed some body language cues on occasion. "Which was...?" Max prompted.

"Oh, I, um, I went to ask Mike about it" she said, cringing.

Max's eyes went wide before she let El go and started laughing hard.

"Ok, ok, its not that funny" El said, laughing too.

When they had both finally calmed down and changed into dry clothes, El took Max's hand and, looking into her eyes, said "let's just make the most of the time we have together before you go to college, then I'll work my ass off and make sure I can join you, ok?"

"Sounds good to me" she replied, kissing her softly.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

The remaining days of summer were filled with good times with and without the gang, but always with El and Max together. They saw movies, ate far more ice cream than was healthy, but who wouldn't with free ice cream on offer, of which Dustin was insanely jealous. Mike and Will were making plans as they were going to the same college, Lucas was off to a military college, hoping to follow his father's footsteps of serving his country. And finally, Max was going to the same college as Dustin, which made El feel better as she knew someone would be looking out for her, keeping her safe.

The end of summer was fast approaching, in less than 2 weeks Max would be leaving for college.

"The house will be empty all weekend" El said, "Mike's off with Will camping, Nancy's with Jonathan, and Karen and Ted are out of town on whatever business it is that Ted does."

"You still don't now what he does?" Max asked, completely off topic.

"I asked him once...and tuned out about 5 minutes later, so still no clue" El replied, "but that wasn't exactly what I was getting at."

"Oh, really, what were you trying to 'get at'?" Max said smirking.

"Star Wars marathon" El replied, completely straight-faced.

Max just looked at her silently for a minute or so, "...really?" she challenged her.

El's straight face lasted a few seconds longer before she started laughing, earning a shove from Max sending her sprawling sideways, if anything making her laugh more. "Oh that's it, you asked for it" stated Max, practically jumping on El and tickling her mercilessly.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry" El managed to gasp in between attacks.

"Yeah, you'd better be" replied Max, still leaning over El, supporting herself with her arms whilst El recovered. "So, house to ourselves all weekend you say" she said, a grin now plastered across her face. El said nothing but just smiled and nodded in return.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

A couple of hours later they were in their pjs making their way up to bed. "I'm so full" Max groaned.

"Well, I did say you shouldn't have that 5th slice of pizza" said El smugly.

"I was hungry from all that exercise we did earlier" Max replied boldly, making El blush but laugh too.

As they reached El's room, Max pulled her close and said softly in her ear "maybe we can work off the extra calories later." She chuckled as she watched El's face redden even more, "you're adorable, you blush so easily."

"Not helping" El replied, "and yes, to your suggestion...but now, sleep."

"Yeah" Max agreed, yawning widely and hopping into El's bed. She shuffled over and patted the space next to her, El got in and laid next to her, curling up and smiling as Max hugged her from behind.

"Night, Max."

"Night, El."

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Max awoke early next morning, the sun hadn't yet fully risen but the light was bright enough to disturb her. Stretching slightly, she realized that El wasn't next to her so she opened her eyes and tried to focus properly. The first thing she saw was El kneeling in front of the bed, her silhouette came into focus first and as the rest of her features were slotting into place Max smiled at her. As her face became clear, Max's smile dropped. El looked terrified. She immediately went to sit up, but as she did so her temple came into contact with cold metal, so she turned her head slowly and found herself face-to-face with the barrel of the gun being pointing at her.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*