A reason to fight for.//elmax-Madmage

Chapter 7:

Eleven walked in and went to the kitchen: 'Are you hungry?' Max shook her head: 'No, not really. Thank you though.' Eleven closed the fridge: 'Me neither.' Max yawned and looked at the couch. 'Tired?' Max nodded, but as she turned her head to Eleven, she saw that there was already some blood on Eleven's bandaids: 'We should clean the wound again and put new bandaids on it.' Eleven went to the bathroom and took a kit out, and handed it to Max. Then she moved two chairs from the kitchen to the bathroom with her powers. 'Wow, you are really lazy.' Max chuckled softly. Both sat down and Max took the kit and put it on her lap, looked at Eleven shoulder and swallowed. 'I...uhm...I think it's best if you...take your...your shirt off, so I could see if it's infected or not...but only if you want to!'

Eleven started lifting the shirt and groaned. 'I need help.' Max blushed and help the brunette take her shirt off very gently. Both girls blushed even harder as Eleven stood there, in front of Max, with only a bra on. Max quickly looked away, she obviously didn't want to be some creep, and didn't want to stare at her perfect body. Eleven shaking voice interrupted her thoughts: 'You have to look at my shoulder, if you want to clean it, you know...' Max looked up and did the mistake to look at Eleven's hazel eyes , and blushed: 'Y-yeah. Sorry. Just tell me...if it hurts.' Max starts to take new bandaids out with her hands shaking, and as she touches Eleven's shoulder, she can feel her own body heat up. Eleven bit on her T-shirt, so she won't scream or make any sound. Max tried to be as careful and gentle as she could, but she just wasn't able to control her shaking hands and sweaty palms.

She leaned down to put the used bandaids in the trash can, and felt something on her knee, she turned around to see Eleven's hand: 'Why are you shaking?'  Max doesn't even know why she's shaking, so how could she even try to explain it to the brunette, so she just shrugged, without taking her eyes off of Eleven's hand: 'I don't want to hurt you.' Eleven caressed Max's knee lightly: 'You won't. I trust you. I know that you are doing your best.' Max looked up and saw Eleven little, soft smile and felt like she was melting on her chair, as she meets those innocent, mysterious, eyes. She desperately looked away, because she knows that if she didn't, she would get lost in her eyes, and nodded. Suddenly, her hands did stop shaking and she could feel her heartbeat slow down and get back on the normal speed. Maybe it was Eleven's hand on her knee, or the little breeze of air, which made its way through a slightly open window, one of them or both gave her goosebumps. It took her a moment to focus again, and she cleaned the wound again and grabbed new bandaids and started to put them around the shoulder very gently and slowly. 'Thank you, Max.' Eleven lifted her arm to put her shirt back on and yelped. Max instinctually helped her, and Eleven gave her a little "thank you" nod.

Don't you wonder who is more nervous? Well maybe Max, because she is in Eleven's house, the girl that she was afraid of. Alone. Just both of them. Max knew that she couldn't go home. Neil got probably drunk after hearing that his son got arrested, and when he's drunk, his violence doesn't have a limit, she wished that she could get her mother out of there, but her mother would never leave. Neil had laid his hands on Max, and her mother just stood there, speechless, crying, and watching as he hurt her. Max could tell that he loved to grab her hair, and push her against the wall, press his chest against her back, and press her chest against the wall. He must have felt powerful. Like he had control over her. He would threaten her and whisper to her what he would do to her, if she'd do the same mistake again. Mostly the mistake was coming home late. After her curfew.

Reality came back as Eleven was waving at her hands in front of Max: 'Hello? Are you there?' 'Yeah. Sorry. I zoned out.' Eleven smirked and smiles in amusement: 'Remember what I said I would do the next time you apologized and I did?' Max eyes widen, but she wasn't in the mood to be crazy: 'Don't, Eleven. Don't give me that look. I'm serious.' Eleven's amused face turned into a sad and concerned one: 'I'm sorry. Are you...ok?' Max nodded looking down at her lap: 'Yeah.' Eleven furrowed and kneel down looking up at the redhead: 'Max...friends don't lie.' Max shook her head: 'We're not even friends Eleven.' Why did I say that? I don't mean it. Shit. Why am I doing this? Why do I always push people away? What am I so scared of? Shit. Why am I so scared of getting hurt? I hate myself. Wow. I never said that before. But...it's true. Eleven didn't move, still looking at Max with her worried look: 'Max.' Max avoided eye contact, she refused to look at her, so as Eleven moved to so she would look at her, Max closed her eyes: 'Stop. Please?'

There was a long moment of silence, maybe 10 minutes. Max didn't dare to move, but she was pretty sure that Eleven had left and gone to sleep, so she opened her eyes. To her surprise, the brunette was still there, looking at her. Max has never seen Eleven so worried, especially worried about her. 'I saw you crying.' Max hold her breathe. Crying? When did I cry? 'In the car. When we were singing. I didn't want to talk about it in front of Flo, but you seemed really sad.' Well shit. 'I...I don't know why I hated you Max. I don't anymore. It was stupid of me. I think I was just jealous and sad that you got to spend time with Mike and I didn't. I'm sorry that I hurt you.' Eleven wants to be friends with her? She couldn't let that happen. Every time she'd let someone in, her or that person would end up getting hurt. With the party it was different. It took her a lot of time to let them in. And...they are all boys. Not that a girl would be any different, right? She trusts the party, but with Eleven it was different. It was complicated. Why? Good question.

Max shook her head as if she was trying to get rid of her thoughts: 'Let's just go to sleep.' Eleven replied quickly:'Max.' 'Please, Eleven. It was a long day, and I really don't want to talk about it, ok? So can you just respect the fact that I'm a mess and can we go to sleep?' Well that's out. Max didn't mean to sound that harsh, but she just snapped. She was tired of holding back, but then she remembered who she was talking to and felt the fear come back. 'Ok.' Max looked at Eleven, who was already walking out of the room. Her shoulders relaxed. Max didn't think twice and stood up, following Eleven into her bedroom. Max had been there before, with the party though. Never just the both of them.

Eleven had prepared a thin mattress next to the bed with blankets, and was putting her Pyjama's on. Max closed her eyes with her hands: 'Sorry!' Eleven chuckled but didn't answer, she just tapped on Max's shoulder when she was done. Max hesitantly opened her eyes and relaxed seeing the brunette fully dressed. Eleven walked up to the mattress and laid down. Max shook her head: 'No, you have the bed, I'll sleep on the floor.' Eleven kept her silence and just pointed at her bed. 'Eleven I'm serious.' Eleven sat up and looked at Max with an "so am I" look. Max swallowed and could feel herself sweating. Max raised her hands: 'Fine.' Max was about to sleep in the same room as the famous Eleven Jane Hopper, plus she was sleeping on HER bed. No wonder Max was nervous. But nervous about what exactly?

Eleven laid down, while Max was still standing there, like a complete idiot. Eleven cleared her throat and it interrupted Max's thought: 'Uh-...yeah.' Max wouldn't even try to argue with Eleven, because she obviously would lose and end up more embarrassed than she already is. Max walked up to the bed and laid down on Eleven's bed. ELEVEN'S BED! Damn her bed is comfortable. And the scent...god it smells just like her...so good...Wait what the hell is happening?!  Max shook her head quickly trying to stop thinking of THAT. She could feel her face warm up and hid her face by turning around and letting her long red hair fall on her face. Their was a long silence until she heard Eleven snoring very lightly. After that, Max decided that she should get some rest too and she slowly dozed off.

A/N: this was supposed to be one chapter with the previous one. Enjoy! <3