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

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Karen watched El tentatively smile at Max, still watching from the doorway. "Well" she said, punctuating the silence with a slightly forced upbeat-ness to it that neither girl really noticed, "I'll leave you to settle in then. I'll get started on lunch." With that she took one last look at El and smiled a genuine smile, happy to finally see her back home.

After a few minutes of looking around the room, the familiarity of it all like some frustratingly pleasant torture, she finally looked up and realized that she and Max were alone. Without knowing why, she felt awkwardly shy as she saw Max watching her. When she saw Max smile at her reassuringly, she didn't hesitate to smile back, feeling the familiar warmth that Max always elicited in her. Lowering her head slightly but still smiling, El made her way across the room and sat carefully on what she presumed was her bed.

Max watched El move across the room, her uncertainty clear to see, constantly reminding Max of what had happened. Taking a subtle breath, Max followed her path across the room and sat beside her.

"Hey" she said lightly, prompting El to look at her.

El paused for a few seconds before replying "hey" followed by a small smile.

"You ok?"

El shrugged, she genuinely wasn't sure what she was feeling and certainly didn't know how to explain it.

"Overwhelmed?" Max suggested, picking up on El's difficulty immediately.

Staring at the floor, El nodded.

"Frustrated?"

El nodded again.

Max paused, a little unsure whether to ask the next word "...angry?"

El flinched, how did someone know her so well when she had barely said a word? She hung her head lower, ashamed of how she was feeling, and nodded again.

Max watched her reaction and fought to stay in control, "me too" she said, "I'm angry too."

El slowly raised her head and looked at Max, seeing the sincerity in her face, but also the love and the fear and the sadness, all the emotions El was feeling reflected in Max's blue eyes.

"It's ok to feel that way" Max said, trying to get her to understand that she needn't be embarrassed or ashamed, "you've been through so much...we both have..." she trailed off.

"I'm sorry" El said, looking away again.

Max frowned at her, "what?"

"This must be so frustrating for you" El reasoned.

Max shook her head, "what do you mean?"

"You've been so nice to me and I can't remember you, I can't remember anyone" she said, slumped on the edge of the bed, "why do you even bother?"

Max smiled slightly, "because I love you, dumbass, and...and you used to love me. I'll spend the rest of my life helping you remember that if I have to."

"I don't deserve that, I'm a bad person, that I know."

"What!?" asked Max incredulously, unable to understand how El could still come to that conclusion.

"Only bad people get locked up, and Papa told me that I needed to be kept away from people, that I hurt people without meaning to because I can't control myself" she explained. Max balled her fists, desperately trying to hide her anger from El lest she think it was directed at her. "He said I could help people, make up for the things that I'd done" she continued.

Max took a deep breath and exhaled slowly through her mouth, to calm herself down if nothing else, "that...man" she said with a trembling voice, choosing her words carefully, "is a fucking liar". She gave up choosing her words carefully very quickly. "He experimented on your mom, your birth mom, and then fucked up her mind when she wouldn't let you go. She fought for you and he destroyed her so he could perform his fucked up little experiments on you...and when he found out about your abilities..." she paused, tears starting to fall from her eyes, "...when he saw that you had this amazing gift, he fucking trained you like a dog so he could exploit them, use them for his own evil fucking plans...he is evil and he is a liar and I wouldn't hesitate to kill him if I could."