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The Hawkins streets were quieter than Lucas liked. Too quiet.
He should’ve been used to quiet by now — he’d survived the Mind Flayer, government experiments, and a lifetime of chaos in the town. But this… this was different. Walking behind Max Mayfield in the dark, with nothing to fight except the quiet, made his chest tighten in ways he didn’t understand.
Max was ahead of him, hands shoved into her jacket pockets, sneakers clicking against the cracked sidewalk. Her hair was shorter now, streaked with gold from the summer sun, and she moved with that reckless, confident energy that made Lucas want to trip over every step just to stay in her orbit.
“Hey! Slow down!” Lucas called, jogging to catch up.
Max didn’t turn. “Or what? You’ll trip and break your face in the middle of Hawkins?”
Lucas rolled his eyes. “Don’t tempt me.”
She laughed — sharp, effortless, the kind of laugh that made him feel alive and panicked all at once.
“You know,” she said after a beat, “if Will and Mike were here, they’d already have a five-step plan to make this night exciting instead of… just walking.”
Lucas snorted. “I’m not Will. I’m not Mike. And this isn’t about them.”
Max glanced at him, smirk tugging at her lips. “Oh, please. You’re basically the Byler Luke now — brooding, awkward, secretly dramatic, pretending you don’t notice me.”
Lucas groaned. “You’re weaponizing my friends’ lives as a psychological tactic.”
“And you love it,” she said, grinning.
He did. And he hated that he did.
⸻
They kept walking, letting the night swallow them. Soon, they were at the old quarry on the edge of Hawkins. Overgrown weeds, graffiti-scarred rocks, and the faint smell of damp earth made it feel like their own private world — far enough from parents, lights, and rules that Max could flirt with danger in her usual way.
“Bet you won’t climb to the top of that ledge,” Max said, pointing to a jagged rock face.
Lucas looked up. “I’m not breaking my neck just to impress you.”
“Oh, please,” Max teased. “If Will were here, he’d already have a dramatic plan to make sure Mike didn’t freak out. And Mike would definitely swoop in to save him. You? You’d just… hesitate.”
Lucas glared. “I am not hesitation incarnate.”
“You totally are,” she said, laughing. “But I guess I’ll allow it — for science. Or, you know, dramatic effect.”
He rolled his eyes but went anyway. Max climbed easily, like she owned every inch of the rock. At the top, the wind caught her hair, tangling it around her face. Lucas reached over instinctively to brush it back. Their fingers lingered. Longer than necessary.
“See? Nothing to be scared of,” Max said, breathless.
“Yeah… nothing,” Lucas muttered, chest hammering.
She leaned against him, and Lucas nearly panicked. “I-uh…”
“Relax, Byler Lucas,” she said with a smirk, “you’re allowed to survive without thinking about saving the world for five minutes.”
Lucas laughed. “I am not Mike. And you are definitely not Will.”
“You’re absolutely right,” Max said, nudging him. “But imagine if we were in their shoes right now. You’d be whining about me making bad decisions. I’d be telling you it’s ‘strategically advantageous’ to follow my lead. Sound familiar?”
Lucas felt heat rise to his ears. “I… uh… yeah, maybe.”
Max laughed softly, leaning her head against his shoulder. The simplicity of it — no fights, no chaos, no monsters — was almost unbearable in its perfection.
⸻
They sat like that for a while, dangling their legs over the quarry’s edge. The town lights shimmered below like fireflies caught in a jar.
“You ever ship them?” Lucas asked suddenly, nodding toward the distant lights of Hawkins.
Max raised an eyebrow. “Ship who?”
“You know. Will and Mike. Byler.”
Max chuckled, nudging him with her elbow. “Oh, so you admit you watch the chaos unfold like the rest of the town gossip? I didn’t think you had time for shipping.”
“I… don’t,” Lucas muttered. “But… I see why everyone talks about them. The way they care. The stupid ways they argue but still—”
“—still choose each other?” Max finished, smiling. “Yeah. That’s cute.”
Lucas felt his chest tighten. “You think that’s… you and me?”
Max laughed again, teasing and warm. “What, Lumax? God, you’re dramatic. We’re nothing like them… mostly.”
Lucas leaned a little closer. “Mostly?”
Max shrugged, looking up at him with a half-smile, eyes daring and soft at the same time. “Okay, maybe there’s a spark… but we’re our own disaster. Not Byler-level disaster.”
Lucas’s lips twitched. “I’m fine with our disaster.”
She laughed, brushing a strand of hair from his forehead. “I think I am too.”
⸻
Hours passed. They talked about school, Hawkins, everything — and kept coming back to Will and Mike. The way they argued about nothing, the way they disappeared into D&D campaigns, the way Lucas sometimes caught himself comparing his awkward fumbling around Max to Mike’s heroic awkwardness.
“You know,” Max said softly, lying back on the grass, “sometimes I wonder if we’re all just living in their story without realizing it.”
Lucas watched her. “Except we’re better.”
Max’s brow quirked. “Better? Do explain.”
“You actually listen,” he said. “And you don’t run off to fight literal monsters without me.”
She rolled her eyes but smiled, nudging him. “Yeah, yeah. Fine. We’re better.”
Their fingers brushed. Then intertwined. Then squeezed.
“I like this,” Lucas admitted quietly.
“I know,” Max said. And then: “I like you.”
Lucas’s chest felt like it was going to burst. “I like you too.”
Their foreheads touched. The air was quiet, except for the distant hum of Hawkins at night.
He kissed her softly, tentative, testing the waters. Max’s lips curved against his, and that spark — their own kind of chaos — ignited.
Pulling back slightly, Max whispered, “You’re ridiculous.”
Lucas grinned. “Yeah. But you like it.”
Max laughed softly. “I really do.”
They kissed again. Slower. Softer. Fiercer this time. No Byler plan could make this feel any more real than it already did.
When they finally lay back on the grass, hands still intertwined, Max murmured, “I guess even Byler would be jealous of this.”
Lucas laughed. “Let them be. This is ours.”
The night wrapped around them. Hawkins still had secrets. Still had monsters. But for Max and Lucas? There was warmth, sparks, teasing, and the knowledge that they were choosing each other — their own story, not someone else’s.