MARLEY // Max Mayfield

Source (E)

The tap of Hopper's bathroom ran over Marley's bloodied hands, the girl just standing there monotonously, watching the red-tinted water wash down the drain. She turned the tap off and wiped her hands down her pant legs still remaining stood.

Staring at herself was all she could really do. Her eyes traced the scar on her face, the small chips in her hands from where she had propped herself up in the glass, healed over in seconds. It was foreign, strange to hear herself breathing. Was she breathing? she brought her finger up to her neck, feeling the steady throb of her heartbeat beneath her pads. Yes, she was breathing.

"Marley?" There was a knock on the bathroom door, "Can I come in?" she wordlessly unlocked it and let Max inside, the girl closing it gently behind her, she looked nervous and fidgety, not because of Marley's presence but because of something else.

"What's up, Red?" Marley said, her mind immediately trying to find faults in her voice that would indicate she was not in fact her. That maybe she was something else now, something not human, something underserving of--

"I love you," Those three words leaving Max's mouth was all it took for Marley's ranting and rampaging thoughts to stop. She turned, looking at her redhead with unsteady eyes, fearing she had heard her wrong.

"What?"

"I love you..." Max muttered this time and Marley smiled, she felt so soft, so light and adoring just staring at the girl.

"Say it again," Marley urged quietly, her voice barely above a whisper as she leant forward, cupping Max's cheeks, the redhead just stood there, silently averting her gaze as her cheeks flushed a dark shade of red, "Come on Bub...say it again."

"I love you..." She mumbled even lower, "I just...wanted you to know, ok...because I do, I really do Marley, I don't know how many times I have to tell you. I want you to talk to me, I will keep asking you to until you do because I care about you and I love you alright...no matter what happens..."

Marley let her go and backed away, a sad smile breaking through and onto her face as she sighed, "I...even if I'm not all human?"

"Marley come on..." Marley stared at her still, waiting for her answer, "You think you're not human?"

"I ate a Demogorgon Max...who knows what that shit did to me, and now I'm falling out of buildings and surviving? Healing wounds overnight?" she said, turning back to the mirror and leaning on the sink, staring intently into her own eyes.

"Yes."

"Huh?" Max sighed as Marley stared at her.

"I would still love you if you were a big gross oversized flesh-eating monster," She smiled, "I'd just keep you chained up or something."

"Kinky," Marley smirked but then turned around wrapping her up in a hug. "Look Max...I meant what I said outside of the hospital...I'm really not all there..."

"How can anyone be after the shit you went through?"

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"Didn't mean it any other way..."

"And I'm also serious about the Demogorgon thing..." There was a long pause before Max pulled away with a grin.

"And so was I, might take me a while to get the chains."

"You'd even kiss me with that petal mouth?" Marley grimaced at the thought.

"Of course!"

"Now that is real love right there," Marley smiled, placing her arms around Max's waist as the girl wrapped her own around the back of her neck, pulling her down into a kiss. Marley traced across the girl's freckles absentmindedly as she cupped her jaw, her thumb gently sliding across each one.