"Okay, Max."
"Okay."
"You'd really let him in when he’s like that?"
“I think I’ve already seen the worst version of him. I've already metthatZero. He didn't break me then, even though I think he wanted to. He's not going to break me now."
I pull him tighter against my side.
"You're a better person than I know how to be," I murmur. Into his hair.
"I am not."
"Yeah, baby. You are."
His hand keeps working the back of my neck. I can feel the day coming off me in pieces. Hawkins. Atlas. The trucks. The file on the coffee table. The nine names I'd just been making myself read for the third week in a row before he walked in.
I know I'm unloading on him.
I know I am, and I should care more than I do. He has his own week. He has classes starting back up in three weeks. Hell, we both do. He has whatever he came up here carrying that he hasn't said and isn't going to say tonight. He didn't come up to the library to listen to me catalog warehouse drama and Zero's bruises.
But he's here. His hand is warm at my nape. His weight is light against my side. The bond is going steady and full under my ribs. And I cannot, for the life of me, stop talking. He makesme calm in a way nothing else does, and the calm wants out as words, and he is letting it.
"Sorry," I murmur. Eventually.
"For what."
"Talking your ear off."
His hand tightens at the back of my neck. He turns his face up and kisses the underside of my jaw, soft.
"Don't be."
"Maxie—"
"I like it when you talk to me about your day, Bane. I like knowing what you do. I like knowing who Hawkins is.”
Max smirks and his eyelashes bat like he knows exactly what he’s doing. But he doesn’t. He’s just this fucking cute.
“Keep talking," he whispers.
I let my head fall back against his hand. Close my eyes again.
He keeps kneading.
After a while his thumb stops. He kisses the underside of my jaw, slow, and lets his cheek rest against mine.
He's quiet. Then, into my shoulder: "Wren made cookies on Wednesday. From scratch. She had me on FaceTime through the whole thing because she said she'd never made them and was sure they'd explode."
I breathe out a small chuckle. "Did they explode?"
"They burned a little around the edges. She said it added character. I tried them the other day when I went over there. They were good."
I press my mouth to the top of his head. Just rest there. "I'm glad you two have gotten close."
"Me too. She's actually the funniest person I've ever met. I don't know how she's funny. I don't know how a person comes out of that with a sense of humor intact."
"Some of us do, baby. Some of us don't. She did."
