MARLEY // Max Mayfield

Please don't die...

After an annoyingly sweet amount of forehead kisses and mumbles goodbye, Steve finally left, sending one last blown kiss to Marley as he walked backwards, stumbled a little and then caught his balance, actually turning this time to run after, Erica, Dustin and Robin.

A force struck Marley from behind and she wheezed a little, taken aback by the force in Joyce's hug as the woman threw her arms around her. Marley chuckled and turned around, wrapping her arms around the smaller woman's frame, eventually leaning over to pull Will into the hug as well. She knew he had already gotten his goodbye hug but decided she wanted him on it too.

"You get in here too...!" Joyce called out with a watery chuckle, a warmth encompassed Marley from behind and a strand of redhead met her gaze, settling a small smile on her face, "All of my children."

Marley grinned as Max laughed and Will whined out a retort, "Mom!"

"I'm sorry Mrs Byers but...how am I one of your children?" Max mumbled over Marley's shoulder, a quizzical grin on her face, Joyce pulled away for a moment.

"Because Marley's my daughter which means you are too," She responded easily and Marley's heart wrenched, her grasp on the woman becoming that bit stronger, "Be safe..."

"We will," Marley sighed and pulled away, Joyce kissing her forehead, doing the same to Max and finally Will who stood awkwardly, his cheeks painted a bright red as he looked over at Marley nervously. The nervousness quickly faded to fondness when he saw the star-struck look in Marley's eye and the smile that looked almost permanent on her lips.

"So..." Marley turned to look down at Max with a soft smile on her face, "Mrs Byers does realise that if I'm her kid too, we're sisters, right?"

"No, dingus she meant you're like her daughter-in-law cause we'll get married one day," Marley told earnestly and then blanked at what she said, looking down at a shocked but beaming Max who recovered quicker than Marley would have thought and pounced on her tree of a girlfriend.

"What did you just say?" She yelled gleefully in Marley's ear, her legs wrapped around her torso and arms firm and tight around her shoulder width. "Did you just say when we get--!?"

"Yes, ok but shush!" Marley blushed, moving her hand to cover Max's mouth, "It slipped, you do realise same-sex marriage isn't legal right?"

"We could do it in secret," Max whispered excitedly, leaning her head against Marley's temple, "doesn't even have to be in a church, we could literally do it in our living room, the rings could be ring pops and instead of a wedding cake, it'd just be a Marsbar."

"You do realise we wouldn't be classed as married in the eyes of the law, right?" Marley sighed, nuzzling her head against Max's as she shifted arms underneath her legs to carry her properly, the two of them making their ways over to Lucas and Mike. Slowly, of course.

"Who cares, we'd be classed as married in the eyes of each other, our friends and some family," Max insisted, earning a small chuff of disbelief from Marley who turned and crouched, gently setting Max down in the seat jut a space away from Lucas.

"Max...calm down," Marley smiled, pinching the girl's cheeks playfully as she remained crouched in front of her, "It was a slip."

"What? So you're telling me you don't want to get married?" Max asked with a slight smirked and Marley looked at her, eyebrows raised.

"You know the answer to that," she chided, leaning up to place a kiss on the girl's cheekbone, only to then plop down beside her.

"Hey," Mike began and Marley glanced over to him, seeing him awkwardly shift over to Hopper and Eleven who were in the middle of a very emotional hug. "We should probably go."