They were all camping out in the Wheelers basement, one to keep an eye on Max so they could try to help if she got tranced or something, and the other to investigate Vecna.
It wasn't going well for any of them and the whole room felt tense. Max had been sat at the desk in the corner, head down as she wrote page after page of fuck knows what. The three boys were going over as many books or newspaper clippings of the Creel family, hoping they would stumble upon a gold mine of information. Alex was sat on the floor, headphones blasting Queen as she watched Max from behind, imagining everything was alright.
The whole thing reminded her of a few months prior, Max had a bunch of homework due in the next day but Alex insisted that they hung out. So Max just sat at her desk, scrawling over tests and pages upon pages while Alex sat behind her and watched lovingly while softly singing music and playing along, or she was right behind her, speaking into her ear in an attempt to distract the girl.
Max could feel Alex's eyes on the back of her head, but she opted to not turn around, in fear of her cheeks heating. She had begun to notice over the past few hours that the two couldn't hold a conversation without stumbling over their words.
She would never admit it too the girl but she regretted the breakup before it was even official, she knew it was self centred and stupid because they had both lost their brother sand were grieving in different ways. But it was like Max didn't know how to explain it but Alex had dealt with loss before, on a larger scale but Max hadn't and it felt like it was suffocating her so she just locked her feelings away.
But then the school year restarted and Max would see Alex with her friends, with all those boys and then after a few months she was always by the older brunette. And then they started kissing in public and Max felt her heart shatter, Alex had moved on like that so Max just never reached out and retried back into her shell.
"Okay, be honest, uh.." Steve paced the room, diffusing the awkward silence as he glared at the newspaper article, "You guys understand any of this shit?"
"No," Lucas sighed, looking defeated.
"It's pretty straight forward," Dustin then answers, making Alex hold back a laugh, before pausing her tape to catch the conversation in case one of them had found something. "So far, everyone Vecna has cursed has died, except from this old Victor Creel dude Nancy found. He's the only known survivor. If anyone knows how to beat this curse, it's him."
Steve huffed, "That's assuming he was cursed, which we don't even know," He argues, looking down at his paper and frowning, "how can Vecna have existed in the fifties? It doesn't make any sense."
"As far as we know, Eleven didn't create the Upside down," Dustin says slowly, making sure everyone was following, "She opened a gate to it. The upside down had probably been around for thousands of years, Millions, i wouldn't even be surprised if it predated the dinosaurs."
"Dinosaurs? what are we-" Steve began, not understanding how this was related at all to the threat at hand.
"Okay," Lucas cut in, knowing that Steve's point was going nowhere, and preventing an argument, "But if a gate didn't exist in the fifties, how did Vecna get through?"
"And how is he getting through now?" Steve added.
"And why now?" Lucas expanded.
"And why then?" Steve continued, "Just pops out in the fifties, kills one family, and he's like 'I'm good' and poof, he just disappears, just... gone? Only to return almost thirty years later and he's just killing random teens? No way, i don't buy it. Straightforward my ass." Steve rants, sliding off the couch and beside his sister, pulling her in a half hug, noticing her picking at her nails, an obvious tell she is nervous. "Honestly, Henderson a little humility now and then, it wouldn't hurt you."
"Sorry," he said, looking more at Alex rather than Steve, knowing that he had been completely unsympathetic over the past couple days. Her eyes were glued on Max, an unreadable expression on her face.
"Any idea what she's writing," Dustin asks them all, looking at the girl hunched over the desk. They all looked from the girl to back to Dustin, then they followed his glance to Alex, "Did she sleep?"
"Would you?" Alex asked in a weak voice, having not slept much out of concern either.
They were about to ask another question but instead there was a bang, followed by the door swinging open and then Nancy and Robin running down the stairs in a frenzied panic.
They came to a stop in front of the majority of the group, Robin almost fell into Nancy in the process, making the older wheeler go a slight shade of pink. "We have a plan," she breathed, passing Steve a leather booklet.
Alex leant over Steve's shoulder to look, new identities.
"Thanks to Nancy's minions, we are now rock-star psychology students at the university of Notre Dame," Robin tells them, with a little smile.
"I'm now Ruth," Nancy says, in a fake introduction.
"And I'm now Rose," Robin introduced, with a small jazz hands.
Alex didn't care for their plan too much, she had this overbearing feeling that something will go wrong anyway. Instead she walked over to Max in the far end of the basement. She looked over Max's shoulder, following her hand as she scrawled quick letters. Max froze for a split second as Alex came over, she was on her Final letter this one in particular for Will.
Alex scanned the desk and landed on Max's walkman, looking at what tape she had in, wondering if it was a better listen than her own. She picked it up and popped the tape out.
"Kate Bush, interesting choice," she mused, making Max look up with a confused look.
Max was more than surprised that the girl was talking to her, Alex had a habit of avoiding the group (minus Mike) and Max in particular. She nodded, folding up the letter and slipping it into an envelope.
"Hound of love," Alex continues, now sat on the desk not even caring that Max didn't care too much for the conversation, she just wanted to distract the girl from her impending death.
"It's a good album," Max responds, now looking at the girl with dyed hair. She looked down to the girls own Walkman, strapped to her pants, "What about you, what secrets does your music hold?" she mocked.
Alex passed Max her walkman back, popping open her own walkman to show her, "Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, it's going to become legendary i know it," She said, closing the box as Max smiled.
Alex noticed that it looked forced and while Max looked happy, her eyes had no emotion and her eyes were glazed over. "Are... are you alright?" Alex asked, shuffling a little closer to the girl.
"No," Max responded honesty, Alex wasn't sure why she asked, obviously Max wouldn't be alright, she is literally being faced with death.
"We're gonna figure something out. We - I'm not letting you die, I promise, I'm never letting that happen... not to you," Alex gulped, stumbling over her words, not daring to face the girl.
"I'm sorry," Max finally said, unable to keep the thought down.
"Huh?"
"I'm sorry, i know you technically broke up with me but... well i stopped turning up and was shutting you out so..." she trailed off.
Alex swallowed, trying to stop her tears as she stepped closer to the girl, wrapping her in a tight hug, letting Max rest her head on Alex's shoulder and let out her tears. "I'm not letting anything happen to you, you hear me?" Alex sighed into the girl's ear, "I'll torch the whole Upside down just to find you, promise."
"I know," Max gulped, her voice hoarse from crying and eyes red as the two girls pulled back from the hug and rested their foreheads against on another.
"I think i love you and even though it's really scary because i also think i love him, but fuck Max, i swear, nothing is taking you, from us - from me," Alex's voice was breaking as she looked at the girl, both of them an absolute mess.
"I think i love you too, i don't care how long you need to sort out your feelings but if i don't die today then I'll wait," Max said back, her own voice going a little.
The two girl just stayed there, leaning there, against each other and breathing deeply, Alex turned to face her and leant in, brushing their lips against each other for a second.
A/N: VOLUME TWO WAS FUCKING INSANE. I STG IF MAX DOESN'T PULL THROUGH I WILL ACTUALLY CRY (MORE THAN I DID) SHE DESERVES THAT DATE WITH LUCAS.
A/N; Yay, my girls are back on good terms and we got a little love, but Alex has a bf remember. DRAMA AWAITS.
But also Dear Billy episode so now be prepared for tears :)